Kord is a firm favourite at CWNL. Sweden’s Johan Sturesson occupies the space between dance and experimental music like few others. In this new release, part of a sonic Advent calendar from Repartiseraren, he’s channeling the ghosts of Chris & Cosey, Kraftwerk and space disco. Cooler than January in Umeå.
At this time of year, the malls are full of carols, television ads feature jingling bells, and radio stations highlight the latest commercial Christmas singles. We decided to line up an alternative playlist, to give your ears a rest. Come cynics, come stoics, come industrial dancers – here’s a set from your own record collection.
12. The Fall – Hark the Herald Angels Sing
11. Röyksopp – Le Cantique de Noël
10. Galaxie 500 – Listen, the Snow Is Falling
9. Pet Shop Boys – It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas
8. S.P.O.C.K – White Christmas
7. Rational Youth – Merry Christmas Mary Anne
6. Cocteau Twins – Winter Wonderland
5. The Knife – Reindeer
4. Erasure – She Won’t Be Home (Lonely Christmas)
3. Parralox – Little Drum Machine Boy
2. Winston Tong – The Twelve Days of Christmas
1. Captain Sensible – One Christmas Catalogue
Bonus! Page – Little Drummer Boy
There must be an army of elves working in Parralox‘s studio. So far, this year, not only have they given us a complete reboot of their first album, Electricity; not only have they secured a support slot for Erasure in London; not only have they given us one of the singles of the year (“Crying on the Dancefloor”) – they have also found time to knock out a classy new EP, just in time for seasonal giving. Holiday ’14 is a sheer stocking filled with sexy surprises, like covers of Human League classics and enough originals and holiday tracks to keep you humming into the New Year, whether you’ve been naughty or nice.
“Little Drum Machine Boy” sets the tone with an electronic spin on the Christmas standard by the non-observant John von Ahlen. Unlike the sentimentality of Bowie and Crosby’s version, von Ahlen’s take is a vocoder-charged electro-crooner. It bleeds perfectly into a cover of Book of Love’s “With a Little Love.”
“You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” of course, wasn’t a Human League original, but the production on their debut album, 1979’s Reproduction, gave it a new frame of reference. The fizzing sounds of the (now) vintage equipment used by the League provided layers of depth that weren’t achievable even with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, and their choice of a Righteous Brothers song was typically contrary at a time when the influence of punk was still strong. Von Ahlen follows the Sheffield boys’ approach, but also finds a way to add a little respect for Vince Clarke along the way.
“The Path of Least Resistance” and “The Word Before Last” – two more Reproduction-era classics – get a modern make-over, while retaining the killer combination of philosophy and rhythmic tension that made the League so important in their original form.
The final present in the stocking is a charming von Ahlen instrumental, with a sparkle like that in Santa’s eye. It comes through Bandcamp, rather than down your chimney, but it’s just the thing for a holly jolly Synthmas!
We are all, as Moby pointed out, made of stars; the scattered debris of dead suns, spread across the universe. Aurora Aksnes’ latest track is about the distance between the living and the dead, who are just sleeping under the stars. If she’s right, then this slickly produced song by the Norwegian prodigy will penetrate their dreams with folk-flecked vocals and an instrumental track that is right on the money.
They had a big hit with this song in France in 1980, so a lip-syncing TV appearance would have been a given. This clip has a lot of the classic Sparks tropes, but it’s still the glorious Moroder/Faltermeyer production that knocks it into the stratosphere.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Back in 1980, the distance between the gate to Martin Gore’s garden in Basildon and the front door of his neighbour and band-mate, Vince Clarke, could be covered in a few steps.
Fast-forward thirty-odd years and they are living on opposite coasts of the United States, the key figures in two of the planet’s best-known electronic bands, Depeche Mode and Erasure. Over this period, separately or together, they have sold scores of millions of albums and reached hundreds of millions of fans.
Both songwriters are close to the hearts of the dedicated fans who call themselves “devotees” (after the Songs of Faith and Devotion album): avid collectors of Depeche Mode releases and memorabilia, who gather at themed parties, wear tour t-shirts and scour the internet for information about rare mixes. Devotees come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of backgrounds, and are found far from the Gore family’s Basildon garden – not even, but especially, in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city.
The proof comes in the form of A Film of Faith and Devotion, a documentary from director Henrik Thyselius. Twelve Gothenburg devotees invite the audience into their homes or to sit down for a drink, sharing their collections of recordings and memories of discovering and following Depeche Mode.
Andreas Noreen has a room dedicated to his collection, in which he maintains a shrine to the Violator album and preserves his correspondence with the Depeche Mode Information Service run by Deb Mann and Jo Gahan. Anneli Persson has a great collection of badges, while Withold Chandra painted the walls of his flat to reflect the band’s graphics. Johan Östberg has thirty-seven versions of The Singles 1981-1985 on vinyl, and even more versions on CD and cassette. Sebastian Hess and Henrik Wittgren run Depeche Mode parties in the city, between their superlative Electronic Summer and Electronic Winter music festivals. These are super-fans, who connect with the band in diverse but intensive ways.
The film is more album- than feature-length, running to 46 minutes, so there is little opportunity to explore connections between the devotees. Fans are represented from different stages in Depeche Mode’s career, but they mainly appear as isolated individuals, rather than a community. One of the mainstays of the band’s writing, since Martin Gore took over from the departed Vince Clarke, has been an exploration of feelings of pain and alienation in different tempos, so it would have been interesting to learn what it is that attracts the devotees to the band and each other as a group. Perhaps, the film-makers would say, it’s for another day – sometimes, it really is just a question of time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Mankind, Brecht once noted in song, is kept alive by bestial acts. Reading the papers, it is hard to find evidence to the contrary: we have always, it seems, been at war with Oceania, and the only possible response to one murderous outrage is to launch another. Drones and mercenaries are part of the ecosystem now; as ubiquitous as images of Kim Kardashian or Miley Cyrus.
A poptronica single isn’t going to clean up this mess, but Hannah Peel’s “Find Peace” mutes the rattling of sabres for 4:00 with Brechtian directness. Released in time for the winter holiday season, it’s a special edition 7″ from the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, a Dutch label, on white vinyl. Mercenaries, drone pilots and Westminster armchair warriors will dislike its pacific sentiment, but nothing about Peel’s delicate, ethereal vocals nor the modular instrumental underpinning of collaborator Benge Edwards is suited to their ambitions. There’s something of a Robert Wyatt vibe to the piece, in places, which makes it feel as subversive as it is sentimental.
The single is available in a signed edition through the divine Ms Peel’s Web shop.
Maybe we’d forgotten how great it was when Lush, Pale Saints and Galaxie 500 were doing their thing, but the shoegaze spirit is strong with this one. Canadian expatriate, Jennie Vee, already impressed us with her debut solo EP, Die Alone, and from her New York base shows that there is more to come. Just don’t let a major label do to her sound what Virgin did to Frazier Chorus.
From what we can tell, Sean Barron of Empire State Human has a new project called iEuropean, into which he has pulled Wolfgang Flür (ex-Kraftwerk, Yamo), while tapping Clive Pierce and Rob Doran (both of hard CORPS notoriety) with Phen for remix support. “Activity of Sound” sounds a little bit like Torch Song borrowing the voice-over from a Juno Reactor track in places, which is no bad thing, and it has been more than competently repurposed for the dancefloor in this mix. Flür, of course, was a robot once, but there is an organic warmth in this song that suggests the machines are evolving.
Dan Pachet used to host a late-night public access cable TV show called Alternative Rockstand. His own tastes were quite varied, but he knew when something was worth listening to outside of the musical mainstream. He captured footage of Skinny Puppy playing the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1985, but it was poorly lit and shot from the back of the venue. The video has gone from Youtube, but you can still find this unique early interview by Pachet.