Made for one of the best tracks on 2010’s Nu, this is a rare example of a Page video. Despite being one of Sweden’s best-loved synth acts, Page have not had a lot of exposure on the visuals side to date, so this is a very creditable and cool effort.
A true classic, Push! from Germany’s The Invincible Limit remains a solid dancefloor filler almost thirty years since it was released. With a synth line that flares out from a sequencer in bursts of flame, Push! is exemplary EBM.
Machinista are on an upwards path. The Swedish duo of Richard Flow (ex-Vision Talk) and John Lindqwister (ex-Cat Rapes Dog) are making a name for themselves with a sophisticated, dancefloor-friendly form of synthpop. This track shows off their sleek sound and Lindqwister’s terrific vocals, with some help from a celestial choir.
William Orbit
LEAF 2013, London
10 November 2013
In his next life, William Orbit is going to be a university professor. A particularly English kind of genius, he appears on stage with course notes that he doesn’t read and muses about the relationship between notation and music at the end of the universe. Along the way, he shows off a drum machine that is actually a machine that plays drums, explains the formal structure of pop hits, tells the history of his work with Malcolm McLaren and Madonna, and shares videos of Soviet trains crashing. An engaging and charmingly self-deprecating speaker, students will love him. A tweed blazer with elbow patches is all that stands between him and tenure at a top college.
Well, that and Britney Spears. As one of the UK’s leading producers, Orbit is in demand among the upper tiers of commercial pop music as a songwriter, studio fixer and remixer. He wouldn’t say this himself, but there is a strong argument that he rescued Madonna’s career with her Ray of Light album. Britney’s comeback needed some oomph, as well, so he recently found himself Stateside working on her next single, Alien. The regularity of such assignments will make it difficult to teach normal classes, and he’s given up drinking, so the quadrangle of an appropriately prestigious university will have to wait for another day.
Orbit’s appearance at the London Electronic Arts Festival was billed as a show, rather than a seminar, but it moved between both ends of that spectrum like the needle on a VU meter. Orbit came to the stage with Torch Song and Bassomatic songs, reaching back more than two decades to his early club hits. In the course of the evening, he shared a remix of Falling Free made for Madonna (revealed as one of his favourite tracks), Purdy from his My Oracle Lives Uptown album and snippets from the next Strange Cargo effort (expected in the New Year). They are all distinctively Orbit-treated tracks, impressed with sublime style. Although he makes a living sharing his creativity with household-name artists, Orbit’s output is often on the alternative or experimental side – like Brian Eno without his oblique strategy cards.
Eno certainly would have appreciated Orbit’s demonstration of a new toy, the Gogobot: a robotic machine that played rhythm on a traditional drum set with added percussion. While Torch Song collaborator Rico Conning supervised the machinery [Editor’s note: Conning is also its inventor], Orbit used it to accompany sounds issuing from his laptop. As Orbit confessed to a love for steam power, as part of a diversion into the influence of digits (fingers) on counting systems, it is perhaps a matter of time before he develops a steam-punk version.
Orbit’s manner is entertaining and informative. Perhaps there is a market for spoken-word shows with audience questions for record producers – as Kevin Smith has done on the back of his successful films and podcasts. If so, then it would be easier for Professor Orbit to schedule lectures between pop hits and Youtube experiments than to squeeze the music into end of term breaks.
A nice version of Martin Gore’s best song, featuring the ubiquitous John von Ahlen from Parralox on vocals. Certainly timely from both meteorological and political perpectives.
A cover of the classic Page track, stripped back and rendered acoustically, so that its simple beauty comes through clearly.
Vive la Fête is a glamorous party band from Belgium. Mix them with the dark EBM of Pantser Fabriek and you get something glorious that sounds like Vicious Pink for the 21st century.
Lars Falk joined Swedish legends Twice a Man after guitarist Dan Söderqvist jumped from a window and hurt his hand. A warm-up gig for New Order in London was saved, and the rest is history. This track comes from a solo cassette release.
Page
Gothenburg, Sweden
30 August 2013
A live performance by Page is a high-voltage affair. Energy and expectations fill the air before a note has been played – like the moment before lightning strikes. When the electricity starts to flow to Marina Schiptjenko’s keyboard and singer Eddie Bengtsson takes his microphone in hand, then the pop sparks really begin to fly. If you add a new album-worth of material to the mix, then both oscillators and dancing shoes are in for a serious work-out.
Page’s show at Gothenburg’s Electronic Summer festival was the first proper outing for the songs from their new album for Wonderland Records, Hemma (At Home). The roof-raising set began with the first single from Hemma, Som en skal (Like a Shell). The live version was faithful to the album mix, showing off the more mature sound that Page have successfully forged since Bengtsson and Schiptjenko revived their musical partnership. Two more songs from Hemma followed, lifting expectations even higher for future work. Ett S.O.S. (An SOS), taken from 2010’s Nu (Now), was more familiar and gave the fans a chance to sing along, with Bengtsson leaving lines for the faithful to fill in.
Jag står i din väg (I Stand in Your Way), with its pounding introduction, raised appreciative voices in the crowd, as well. En dag på zoo (A Day at the Zoo) sounded right up-to-date, as if it had been written in 2013; a timeless, dancefloor-friendly gem. Alla som väntar (Everyone Who Waits) from Nu showed off Page’s ability to deliver emotionally-charged material on stage. Som skjuten ur en kanon (Like a Cannonball) enhanced the nostalgia factor. Many in the crowd have been following Page and its members’ other projects for three decades, and these are the songs they fell in love to (and possibly divorced and remarried to – time flies, after all).
A rousing version of Förlåt (Sorry) showed why Page have such staying power: with its insistent rhythm track and a powerful vocal from Bengtsson, delivered in part on his knees, it pulls at the heart-strings while compelling movement. Back on his feet, Bengtsson then led the crowd through a frenetic and extended performance of Dansande man (Dancing Man), Page’s first single. Schiptjenko, resplendent in a sleeveless black dress and boots, dances between phrases, transported with the chanting crowd to the days when this was the in-house anthem of Sweden’s synth community.
This was how Page ended, back in 2000, when they performed their farewell at the SAMA awards. Tonight, however, they are called back to the stage by a crowd happily singing Mia & Tom before Bengtsson takes over. This is Page in the zone: a classy boy-meets-girl love song with a stunning melody. When they leave the space under the spotlights, it’s with a bow and a wave, but this round it’s not goodbye; it’s until next time.
Pictures of Marina Schiptjenko and Eddie Bengtsson by Markus Fagerberg; used under licence.
Julian & Marina
Gothenburg, Sweden
29 August 2013
It is hard not to fall in love with Julian & Marina. Watching the electro-crooner duo from Stockholm perform is a little like being with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in 1960s Rome, but in colour and with a sleek synthesized soundtrack. They are stylish, cool and refined, and clearly enjoying themselves as they play a set of original songs and selected covers. Later in the Electronic Summer festival, the stage will be claimed by hard-edged futurepop and EBM bands, but for now they own it completely.
Julian is Mr Brandt, latterly the bass player for Lustans Lakejer. Marina is Ms Schiptjenko, still of Page and formerly with Vacuum and BWO. They were brought together by their shared love of old-school Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran, and it is these influences which come out most strongly. The ghost of a younger Neil Tennant is present in songs like Count the Stars, and the smooth sounds of The Moon and the Stars do a lot to restore romance to electronic music.
Lee Hazlewood and Irving Berlin make appearances, as songwriters, but Julian & Marina’s own material is just as slick. Brandt handles vocal duties with a winning and infectious style, while Schiptjenko’s keyboard work is accomplished and refined. The baton of the early Pet Shop Boys has been picked up, dusted off and given a make-over by these Swedes, who will take your heart, as well.