Mirrors took some stick for wearing their OMD influences on their sleeves, but few acts in recent times have managed to sound as magisterial as the Brighton-based outfit did on this track. Although it provided vital signs of hope for British indietronica, a second album was not to be before the band dissolved amidst the pressure to sound less like their heroes. It’s a shame, because OMD certainly didn’t mind.
With Tina Schnekenburger running their Conny Plank-produced backing tracks, the duo of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft dominate the stage in this video from 1981. Robert Görl remains one of pop’s greatest drummers, marking time with the same martial precision on display here. Singer Gabi Delgado snarls and purrs in equal amounts, leaping between ends of the stage like a cat chasing a sunbeam. This is raw power, Iggy.
For completists, here is the 1979 version of the song, recorded before the Görl-Delgado split from the rest of the band:
Influenced by Italo disco and lethal live, Vision Talk were one of Sweden’s best-loved poptronica acts. Richard Flow, the singer, moved on to be the keyboardist in Machinista, while Krister Petersson started the SwedIT project with different singers (including Flow and his bandmate, John Lindqwister). Karin Hallberg joined Vanguard’s live show. When they were together, they knocked out this rather beautiful dance track, which got the remix treatment from John von Ahlen of Parralox.
Born in the suburb of South Woodford and raised in Basildon, Vince Clarke could have ended up as a cab driver or worked at Ford’s Essex plant, but instead he founded three of the world’s most successful pop groups: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure.
It was his charismatic, blue-eyed friend, Robert Marlow, who was expected to make it big amongst their Basildon contemporaries, but Simon & Garfunkel fan Clarke proved to be more adept at writing sparkly pop songs. He turned underemployment to his advantage during the early days of Depeche Mode, programming future hits into a sequencer on the sofa or practicing keyboard riffs with headphones on (to avoid annoying his mum).
Today, he lives and works in New York, surrounded by one of the world’s greatest collections of vintage synthesizers, and is revered as the musical genius behind more than three decades of chart-bothering electronic pop hits – from Depeche Mode’s “Dreaming of Me” in 1981 to the latest Erasure album, The Violet Flame.
Along the way, Clarke’s interests have broadened into ambient soundscapes, soundtracks and remixing work. In 2012, he released Ssss, an album of techno-driven instrumentals, with his former Depeche Mode bandmate, Martin Gore. The same year saw a 10 CD box set, The House of Illustrious, compiling more instrumental works – many of them designed for art galleries and dance companies – with Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware.
Having settled into the Erasure groove thirty years ago, it is almost forgotten how the ambitious but impatient Clarke left Depeche Mode just as they were on the cusp of world domination, or that his working relationship with Alison Moyet was so difficult that Yazoo’s second album was recorded in separate studio sessions. Of the latter experience, Clarke told an interviewer from Songfacts, “It was sad, but I don’t think we could have continued working together without probably strangling each other.”
A natural collaborator who likes to work alone; a synthesizer master who composes on acoustic instruments (guitar or piano) – Clarke is a man of contradictions, and some of his best work arguably has been generated by the tension between his pop instincts and the contrasting styles of his musical partners.
10. West India Company – Ave Maria
Blancmange was a duo that came to prominence about the same time as Depeche Mode. They became friendly with Clarke through supporting Depeche on their Speak & Spell tour. In the summer of 1984, Blancmange’s Stephen Luscombe put together this East-meets-West fusion track under the name, West India Company, with vocals being provided by the popular Bollywood singer, Asha Bhosle (who was later name-checked in a popular song by Cornershop). It was recorded at Splendid Studios, set up with Eric Radcliffe on the site of Blackwing Studios, where he worked following the break-up of Yazoo. Clarke set to work with his Fairlight CMI synthesizer, getting credit on the sleeve for “pyrotechnics.”
For the technically-minded, it will be of interest that, in the same year, Clarke showed off the capabilities of his Fairlight CMI for Electronic Soundmaker and Computer Music magazine. His presentation included samples of tablas recorded with percussionist Pandit Dinesh, who had contributed to West India Company’s recording.
9. Billy Ray Martin – Sweet Suburban Disco (Vince Clarke Mix)
Former S-Express and Electribe 101 vocalist, Billy Ray Martin, pulled in Clarke for a remix of her 2011 solo single, “Sweet Suburban Disco.” With Erasure, Clarke has perfected the adaptation of the disco template to contemporary danceable pop, so he would have been an apparent candidate for remixing duties. Less obvious was his match-up with Happy Mondays, for whom he provided one of the remixes of “Wrote for Luck” (the other coming from Paul Oakenfold) that signaled the transformation of Manchester indie into the Madchester rave scene. Clarke has been selective about his remixing assignments, but he almost always finds the sweet spot that infuses a great song with dancefloor magic.
8. Dome – To Speak
Dome was the experimental project of Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, on hiatus from their roles in Wire. Their output features little by way of melody or traditional song structure, but Clarke appeared on their fourth album, Will You Speak This Word, as the operator of his rare and expensive Fairlight CMI synthesizer. The story goes that Clarke didn’t feel comfortable turning over his Fairlight CMI to Gilbert and Lewis, fearing it could be messed up by inexperienced operators, so he found himself on the album as a manipulator of sounds. This track also features the voice of his then-girlfriend, Deb, who was one of the prime movers behind the Depeche Mode and Yazoo Information Services.
7. Absolute – T.V. Glare
After the break-up of Yazoo, Clarke set up his own record label, Reset Records, together with the owner of Blackwing Studios, Eric Radcliffe. The artists released on Reset included Robert Marlow, Peter Hewson, Hardware and Absolute. Robert Marlow was the best-known of the Reset stable, but his Clarke-produced album, The Peter Pan Effect, didn’t see commercial release until 1999. Absolute’s effort is in a similar vein, and is interesting for the recognisable sounds and accents that were extracted from Clarke’s equipment.
6. Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn – One Day
“One Day” veered from Clarke’s usual formula. It was sung by Paul Quinn, the singer from Bourgie Bourgie, and incorporated a synthetic string sound that is a rare reminder of Clarke’s childhood violin training. The Cold War-influenced video featured the unlikely image of Clarke holding a semi-automatic rifle and manning a border post. The single just dented the Top 100 on its release in 1985, but its moody, brooding feeling has made it an enduring favourite for fans of Clarke’s music.
5. The Clarke & Ware Experiment – House of Illustrious (Extract Three)
In 1999, Clarke released Pretentious with Martyn Ware. A second collaboration appeared in 2001, Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle. In 2012, a box set of their joint work appeared, gathering both albums and adding to them no less than eight CDs of material accumulated from commissioned works. Clarke has described the early Human League albums, before Ware left to start Heaven 17, as key influences on him, which showed how electronic music didn’t have to be emotionally cold.
4. Erasure – Stop!
The project with which Clarke has been most closely associated for three decades, Erasure, was not initially a great success. Andy Bell, a women’s shoe salesman, auditioned for Clarke, producer Flood and Mute Records boss, Daniel Miller, after dozens of other singers had been rejected. Their first album together, Wonderland, made it into the lower rungs of the Top 100 in the UK, but the band’s first three singles failed to achieve the commercial success or reap the critical praise that Yazoo had won. Touring and refinement of their sound built up Erasure’s profile, and a string of chart-topping releases firmly established them as a world-class act.
The Crackers International EP came out in time for Christmas in 1988, sporting a sleeve inspired by a Soviet propaganda poster and led by a high energy track that has become a crowd favourite. With its bright, synthetic brass and seasonal bells, pulsing synths and layered vocals, it’s iconic Erasure.
3. The Assembly – Never Never
Clarke’s original plan for The Assembly was to record an album of songs with different vocalists – a concept that doesn’t sound dissimilar to the British Electric Foundation project of future collaborator, Martyn Ware. Together with Eric Radcliffe, Clarke worked out a scheme for the album, but they were reportedly defeated by the complex licensing and exclusivity practices of the recording industry. The only material to make it to release was 1983’s “Never Never,” which featured The Undertones’ vocalist, Feargal Sharkey, and the instrumental B-side, “Start Stop.”
2. Depeche Mode – Puppets
Everyone has their own view on Clarke’s work with Depeche Mode, which makes it difficult to pick out just one song. While “Just Can’t Get Enough” has become a mainstream classic, more experimental works from Clarke’s time with the band, like “Shout” and “Any Second Now,” have their own appeal. There are some who would argue that “Ice Machine” should have been the A-side of their first single, instead of “Dreaming of Me,” while debate continues whether the version of “Photographic” that appeared on the Some Bizarre compilation was better than the one on Speak & Spell. We selected “Puppets” because it captures the essence of the sound that Clarke designed for the band: simple, repetitive phrases building into elegant, interlocking sections, allowing room for Dave Gahan’s vocals to breathe. They took a different direction when he left, leaving fans to dream of what might have happened if he had stayed.
1. Yazoo – Softly Over
Given the fractious relationship between Clarke and Alison Moyet during the recording of You and Me Both, one might think that there is a reference to their working arrangements behind the opening line: “It’s over, there’s nothing more to say.” Actually, this song is a sweet story of love passing beyond reach, in which the warmth of the electronics contrasts with Moyet’s pained, blues-tinged vocals – just the combination that made an ex-punk and a Simon & Garfunkel fan such a potent combination.
Lustans Lakejer [EN: Lackeys of Lust] was one of Sweden’s first – and remains one of its greatest – new wave bands. Formed in 1978, the band achieved success with their first single, “Diamanter är en flickas bästa vän” [EN: “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”], twice: originally, in a punk-pop vein, and in 1982 with a more refined style, which saw them taking up position as a Swedish Duran Duran or Ultravox. Led by vocalist Johan Kinde, LL continue to charm their way across the country’s stages. This video is from a performance on Swedish television.
Dan Söderqvist is well-known as one-half of the electronic group Twice a Man, but he began his musical career in 1969 as a guitarist with Älgarnas trädgård, a progressive rock band. The experimental tradition that he grew up with, artistically, is evident in his first solo album, A Defence of Poetry: there are no spoken words, but the title references an essay by Shelley, in which the importance of sound to poets is emphasised.
Gathered in this album are six tracks, of which five are original compositions dated between 1989 and 2013. Despite their diverse inspirations and backgrounds, there is a definite unity between the instrumental songs. They are held together by the human voice, which is emulated in its collective, choral form to make sounds but not words, and naturalistic references that give each track a feeling of place or time.
“The Cherry Orchard” is a piano-based piece that sits neatly between the processed sound of Harold Budd and the naturalistic work of Virginia Astley, but it has dimensions of its own. Söderqvist explains in the notes that:
The last play by Chekhov has always inspired my mind. Among all Russian literature that I fancied in my youth it stood out as the essence of nostalgic sentiments. I have not yet had the honour to work with the play in whole. As an example i wanted to make a fragmented version. Reading it through i found the character of Ljubov, the mistress of the house so intriguing, that I decided to make a piece with some of her lines from the play. The atmosphere of lost childhood, the beauty of her garden, now in jeopardy of the axe, evokes memories of her life, of lost dreams… It`s melancholic, a feeling I love and know perhaps too well.
“November, You Humming Mist” begins with an Asian percussion style, before synthetic strings waft in, coming in layers like cool air blowing through bamboo. Harsher organ sounds emerge from the fog, rising and falling, before giving way to wind chimes and a fragile tranquility.
Tension returns with “Nacht,” which is built around the spine of a looped string hit and gradually becomes more rhythmically complex before dissolving into choral sounds. Night is followed by “Morgen,” which makes use of processed found sound and draws the choral material more prominently into the mix. These tracks are companion works, composed following the death of Söderqvist’s mother, but they work organically as a preparatory stage for the samples and synthetic strings of “After Life You Will Hear Voices of Your Childhood”, which was commissioned for a dance performance in Gothenburg. As a reference point, “After Life…” has some echoes of Pierre Perret’s legendary cassette, Gaia, la Terre, but it is distinctively in Söderqvist’s style.
The album closes with “Heilige Dankgesang,” in which all earlier traces of brooding and anxiety are expurgated. Like movements of a symphony, each track has its place on the arc of the album, and Beethoven’s song of thanksgiving is imbued with pastoral calm. The album doesn’t just end; it comes to rest in a place that T.S. Eliot famously described as “the fruit of reconciliation and relief after immense suffering.”
Melina Merkouri was the popular Minister for Culture in a series of Greek governments after the restoration of democracy. Her credentials for the post included her work as an actress and singer. Mikro is a Greek electronic band on the Undo Records label, home to Marsheaux. They recently contributed this remix for a tribute album, released twenty years after Mercouri passed away. Their touch on this mix is discreet, letting Merkouri’s voice shine through. She was known to some as “the last Greek goddess,” but we are sure there are others – there just isn’t another Melina Merkouri.
Jonas Sjöström is one of Sweden’s unsung musical talents. The Stockholm-based synth master sports a Sequential Circuits tattoo on his arm and a studio full of analogue equipment, which he deploys to create poptronica of real quality and distinction. He has been putting out his music on Soundcloud, while providing remixes for other artists like Candide and appearing on compilations as part of The Future and La Dolce Vita. CWNL caught up with Sjöström to dig a little deeper into his influences and background.
You have released a number of songs on Soundcloud and taken part in several cover or remix projects, but when we will get to see an album of Jonas Sjöström music?
Well, good question really, haha! Mostly, I have just been playing for fun and haven’t really thought more of it, but of course it would be nice to release something at some point. I need someone who can write lyrics and sing first, I think. I would feel a bit more comfortable releasing something as a band, if the possibility would arise, rather than a solo act. It would make it easier to perform live, as well. I’ve always preferred the studio work before the performance part, but I have to admit the very few appearances I have done in recent years have been really fun.
Your dedication to Dave Smith’s technical legacy is written on your arm, but what is it about the Sequential Circuits and DSI instruments that most attracts you?
Ohh, there is something about his instruments that really appeals to me – first of all, the sound! I love the Curtis LPF filter, they look good, and one of my first synths – the SCI Pro~One – also had the built-in step sequencer, so for me it was like a dream machine. They are far more versatile than most of the other synths of the era. Also, when I think of a sound I have in my head and transform it on a Prophet, it just sounds they way I imagined it to sound. You know what happens if you turn “that” knob. They also have quite a sophisticated modulation matrix or modulation possibilities that enable accidental sounds, too. Even his new synths have this classic Prophet sound but take the modulation possibilities to a completely new level – almost like a modular synthesizer. I could go on forever.
How did you first get involved with synths?
Like for many people, it was my older sibling who introduced synths into my life, back in 1983. Overnight, 90% of his class started to listen to synth music, so he brought home LP albums with Depeche, OMD, Kraftwerk and Yazoo and VHS cassettes with videos, which were fairly new at the time, and I was hooked! The 2 first songs I heard were ”Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats and ”Love in itself” by Depeche Mode. Depeche still stands out as number one, even to this day. But it wasn’t until 1989 that I got my first synthesizer, a Korg Mono/poly, and started to mess around with the instruments myself.
In the summer of 1992, I finally got hold of a Pro~One. I had read about it for years but couldn’t afford one. At that time, a friend of mine who also was very interested in the analogue world of synths taught me a lot about programming sounds, so my programming skills are much thanks to him – and then, of course, thousands of hours just turning knobs and step-program sequences on the Pro~One sequencer. We only set two rules: no MIDI and no digital. So, that is how I started.
Vince Clarke is clearly one of your synth heroes. Which other artists working with synthesizers do you most respect?
Is it that obvious? Vince is probably my number 1, 2 and 3, even! But, of course, there are others. Besides him personally, there is of course Depeche Mode as a band – a huge inspiration to me. Daniel Miller is another one. Other artists are Sweden’s Eddie Bengtsson (PAGE, SMPJ), who is a big inspiration to me, then there’s DAF, OMD, The Human League, Adolfson & Falk and Lustans Lakejer, to name a few.
Which other current artists do you feel are doing the most interesting things in electronic music?
Trust and The New Division are two artists/bands that really stand out for me, and also Junior Boys.
What instruments are in your current set-up?
Oh, I love this question. It’s always interesting to see what instruments people are using. In my current setup, I have the following instruments: SCI/DSI Drumtraks, Prophet~5, Prophet ’08, Prophet 12, MoPho, Moog Sub37, KORG MS20, Roland MC-4, System-1, TB-3.
I also have the Arturia V Collection, and when I use it I usually use the Prophet V, ARP 2600 V and the Spark VDM. Another software synth I have and use occasionally is the UVI Emulation II (Emu Emulator II).
If you could take one instrument with you to a desert island, which one would you choose and why?
Ohh my! Hmm… it used to be the Pro~One (before I sold it), but I have to say, today, it would be the Prophet ’08. They sound almost identical, but with the Prophet ’08 you get four of everything. The Pro~One used to be my “go-to synth,” but now it is the Prophet ’08. Most melodies, syncussion and bass lines tend to be written on the Prophet ’08 – amazing machine!
Mark Stewart’s rage is key to the sound of The Pop Group and most of his solo output, but in 1987 he offered a combination of Satie and Tackhead hip-hop rhythms as the setting for an incantation of unpredictable beauty. The righteous rage returned in short order, but for a moment (in love) Stewart tamed his beast and gave us sight of his soft side.
Daniel Miller is best known as the owner of Mute Artists (formerly Mute Records, but the original name didn’t come with the sale by EMI) and as The Normal, the artist name used for the release of “TVOD”/”Warm Leatherette.”
The son of Austrian refugees, Miller grew up in North London with a love of Kraftwerk, Can and Neu! and worked as a DJ before buying a Korg 700s and recording his first single. Modest and uncomfortable in the limelight, Miller performed as The Normal with Scottish electronics pioneer, Robert Rental, but found himself happier in the studio and working behind the scenes with his record label than standing on the stage himself.
He discovered and propelled the careers of Depeche Mode and others, but over the years has also been seen lending a technical hand to Thomas Dolby and Soft Cell or producing The House of Love. Miller still records as Sunroof! with his close friend and Mute producer, Gareth Jones.
To launch our new feature, Shine On, we’ve picked out a number of songs to reflect the breadth of Miller’s work as a producer, composer and performer. The constants are a well-developed sense of arrangement, an instinct for unique sounds that are often detuned or shaped in unexpected ways, and a feeling for driving rhythms. These reflect his Krautrock influences but also the effort that comes with closely reading the manuals to his collected synthesizers and then throwing them away.
10. Missing Scientists – Big City Bright Lights
The synthesizer credit on this 1980 release is granted to one “Jacki” and a co-production credit on the A-side goes to “Larry Least,” but both are pseudonyms for Miller. “Jacki” was one of the mythical players in Miller’s Silicon Teens fantasy pop group, while “Larry Least” was a name he adopted as a reference to the producer, Mickey Most.
The reggaetronica style is one that is not commonly associated with Miller, though he was later to contribute to On-U Sounds’ legendary Pay It All Back compilation a few years later.
9. Voice of Authority – Fuh Fuh
When On-U Sound released their first sampler album, Pay It All Back, in 1985, it cost the same as a single and was packed with the juiciest reggae/experimental tracks from Adrian Sherwood’s burgeoning stable of artists. It also contained this short and peculiar composition by Miller, featuring early sampling technology.
8. Thomas Dolby – Radio Silence
In the early 1980s, it was known that, if an artist needed help with some complicated synthesizer set-ups, or the use of a Synclavier, Miller was the go-to person. He did production work with Soft Cell, but less well known is his contribution to this 1982 Thomas Dolby song.
7. Alex Fergusson – Stay with Me Tonight
Another 1980 production effort credited to “Larry Least,” this single from Alex Fergusson (Alternative TV, Psychic TV) is clearly programmed/performed by Miller. At the time, Ferguson was experimenting with the move from punk to electro-pop, a path charted by Mute Records. This single appeared on the Red Records label.
6. Silicon Teens – Sun Flight
Miller’s Silicon Teens project was, for the most part, a series of covers of rock standards, like “Memphis, Tennessee” and “Just Like Eddie,” but it also yielded a couple of original Miller compositions. “Sun Flight” is the one that gets remembered best, as it combines themes of space travel and synths in a way that was not totally dissimilar to a later Mute release, “Fred vom Jupiter” by Die Doraus und Die Marinas.
5. Fad Gadget – Lady Shave
The strength of Miller’s songwriting and production work came out most strongly in his work with Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget). Miller took songs written by Tovey and turned them into brooding electronic classics with the menace of punk but a style of their own. The early Fad Gadget singles became an outlet for Miller’s creativity, where he could stretch his one-fingered compositional style to the limits.
“Lady Shave” is an exceptional song from a number of standpoints: the sequenced bassline that carries the song is electro-minimalism incarnate; the studio itself is played to generate tones based on an electric shaver; and the unconventional top line is distinctively Miller.
4. Duet Emmo – Or So It Seems
The most achingly beautiful pop song ever made, we’ve called “Or So It Seems” before, and this collaboration between Miller and Wire refugees, B.C. Gilbert and Graham Lewis, shows Miller at his one-fingered best. Lewis’ vocals are like threads of glass spun around the core of a grumbling bass-line and bells, but the build-up and release of tension in the song is 1982 shot-through.
3. Sunroof – Hero
Miller’s occasional project with Gareth Jones, Sunroof has largely been responsible for covers of Krautrock classics, like this legendary Neu! track. The vocals here are provided by the extraordinarily beautiful Alison Conway, who has appeared as A.C. Marias on Mute and made a number of videos for the label.
2. The Normal – TVOD
If you put out a record by yourself, while living in your mum’s house, the last thing you’d expect is for it to be covered by Grace Jones and adopted as the title for her album. Such was Miller’s luck with “Warm Leatherette,” which Jones’ producer probably heard played by DJ Rusty Egan at the Blitz club.
An attempt to make punk music with synthesizers, “TVOD”/”Warm Leatherette” came out in 1979, while the DIY spirit was still strong, and it is the springboard for everything that followed. We’ve picked “TVOD” for this list, because it gets less attention but shows off techniques like tape cut-up that link the single to the industrial scene that was taking shape at the time.
1. Depeche Mode – Shout
The influence of Miller on early Depeche Mode is very clear from their recordings. While a major label would have polished their sound and image beyond recognition, Mute and Miller brought out the experimental side of the band and gave them room to explore sounds and rhythms that were less obviously commercial. One of the best examples is on this B-side to 1981’s “New Life,” which is driven by sequenced drum-like sounds and the simplest synth line ever.