Electronically Yours

Greek sensations Marsheaux are the talented duo behind track 6 on 'EY VOL 1' with the bouncy and crisp electro of 'Sadly'.
In a rare interview, Marsheaux chat to EY about touring with Client, the next Out of Line single and album, Marshy's Goth following, their fave Depeche Mode tracks and 'spanking'...

Orac: How did it all begin for Marsheaux? Was your 2003 debut 'Ebay Queen' recorded shortly after you formed?

M&S: Marsheaux started out as joke between friends! We ended up recording 'Popcorn' for a CD compilation (NU ROMANTIX) release in Greece at 2002. The song was a big hit on the radio so we thought maybe we should go on writing other songs. We started recording Ebay Queen 6-7 months later.

Orac: Depeche Mode's Fletch was very keen on 'Ebay Queen', how did he come to find you as the release was fairly well hidden outside of Athens.

M&S: We met Fletch when we played at a Hysterika party together (Greek Depeche Mode fan club) in Athens where he was invited as a guest! We got introduced and we gave him our CD.

Orac: Did you take 'Ebay Queen' to any of the major labels in Athens prior to creating Undo Records?

M&S: Yes we gave a copy to Warner Greece and the A&R guy said 'Sorry but we don't release rubbish...'.
That was the first and last time that we've been involved with a major label.
Of course after the release of 'Ebay Queen', many A&R people approached us to learn how many records we still have to do for UNDO Records.

Orac: There was a three-year gap between your debut and 'Peek A Boo' that you eventually released in Jan 07. There is certainly a huge jump in terms of production for the second album with a fuller sound - did it take a lot longer to record?

M&S: We've started making music as music lovers. Not as professionals. 'Ebay Queen' got great reviews but some people wrote that it was kind of 'naive'. We've changed that with 'Peek A Boo', we think successfully. We made 'Ebay Queen' within a week and 'Peek A Boo' within 6 months.

Orac: You must be delighted by the critical and commercial response to 'Peek A Boo', during the recording, did you have any sense that this album would do so well across Europe?

M&S: Not at all. We didn't expect that something like that would happen! The truth is that we haven't had a bad review so far. The acknowledgement was great even coming from musicians and groups that we admire a lot! It was something beyond imagination!

Orac: How important has Myspace and the internet both been in helping to get Marsheaux out there?

M&S: Myspace has done most of it for us. Communicating through Myspace brings people closer to us and even more people get to know you through it! We have new friends every single day! Think how everything was operating a few years ago and imagine how it is going to be in the near future. Everything changes hour by hour!

Orac: Both Marsheaux and Undo have such passion for electro, EY picked up on it when we first reviewed 'Peek A Boo' and it's something that fans recognise too when they hear your music, what are your earlist electro memories?

Sophie: Sparks and Giorgio Moroder.
Marianthi: Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk.

Orac: Offers for festivals and support slots seems to be coming in quick and fast for you, are there any acts that you would dearly love to open for and tour with?

M&S: We really enjoy playing with groups that we love. We did that last year with OMD which was an unbelievable experience for us!!
The last three years we've met so many people of who we had pictures and articles in our notebooks as little girls!! We never even in our wildest dreams could ever imagine that at 2008 we'd do a duet with Andy McCluskey - 'She's Leaving' from A&M album.
We still would love to work with Vince Clarke, Martyn Ware, Alan Wilder, Phil Oakey and Andy Bell.

Orac: How are the Marsheaux song writing duties shared in the studio? Who writes the lyrics and hooks and do you spend many hours playing with the Micro Korg?

M&S: We both have a microkorg at home.We use this for the demos.
Normally we meet and work together and ideas come one by one. Some times nothing comes up so we go out have fun and do nothing! We don't work at the studio.

The boys at UNDO call us lazy but that is the way we work.
Sometimes we work alone at home and send mails to each other.
We've done a lot of songs like that!
And of course there are times where we write a sequence with the vocal line on it and send it to Nick and George from FOTONOVELA.
They add something, refresh something else and sent it back to us again where we continue the work...

Orac: What tracks are currently dominating your iPods?

Marianthi: Fotonovela's 'Mistakes Are Good' and Ladytron's 'Velocifero'.
Sophie: Fotonovela and Crystal Castles.

Orac: What do you think of the new EY VOL 1 CD - are there any tracks that have really surprised you as artists?

M&S: Electrobelle for sure. We wish we'd done 'Mirrorball'. It's a diamond. Parralox and Cassette Electric are really good. We also like Northern Kind a lot and of course TIGER BABY, a brilliant group who are becoming quite famous - and they deserve it.



Orac: You've recorded a brand new track in 2008 for the compilation entitled 'Sadly' that fits in so perfectly. How long did it take to write and record?

M&S: Honestly? We did it within 1 day but it was an idea we had from the past. The bass line was ready and we added the vocal line. The truth is that we got stuck with it back then and had no idea what to do about it! So this time it was easier.

Orac: You played in London for the first time for EY last year, what was it like for you and are you looking forward to returning to the UK this year?

M&S: It was the second time we played outside Greece. At the beginning it was really difficult to get used to all these people...until the power went down in the first song! We realized then that there are other things that can go wrong besides being really stressed...so we thought 'let's have some fun'.
It seems that we have a thing with power failure. We had power loss in Treffen too!!

In two months we are going to play in England at the INFEST festival together with And Oneand FRONT 242.. This is something we really are looking forward as it is always a pleasure to be in England. We are coming back in October to see OMD play with China Crisis and we'll have a lot of fun for sure!!

Orac: What's the best Depeche Mode track ever?

Sophie: 'Shake The Disease' and 'But not Tonight'.
Marianthi: 'Stripped' and 'The Things You Said'.

Orac: You've played in Germany a few times now first with Client, what was that like supporting a band whose records you often play during DJ sets in Greece?

M&S: We had a great time with CLIENT in November! They were of course great professionals and experienced! As it was our first tour ever we thing we've managed quite well. By the way we never had power loss in Germany.
We were very impressed by the way Client work as a group! After every concert they went down to the merchandise desk and sell their own merchandise. Anyone could get a picture of them or with them or speak to them. It was as if the whole people had a backstage pass and were taking place to their party! Unbelievable. They were great and friendly with all the people!
Kate has a unique way of organizing everything. She is beyond clever. If you don't see that, you can't believe it.

Orac: Marsheaux have produced some stunning remixes for other bands in the past including Depeche Mode and most recently Client. Who else would you like to remix?

M&S: Virgin Greece asked us to make the remix but they never got approval for it. People think that it is a bootleg and maybe they are right.
We'd love to remix YAZOO. If Mute could gave us a track to remix we could make it great as we love Yazoo greatly.

Orac: Like The Human League, you seem to be attracting a big Goth audience when you play live and in August you play at Infest in Bradford this August. Do you already know what tracks you'll be playing and will we get to hear your version of Empire State Human?

M&S: With the Goth community, this is something that we still don't understand. We can understand people that listened to Tears for Fears, Spandau Ballet and Classix Nouveaux that they like Marsheaux, but for people that are listening to Christian Death and Fields of the Nephilim, we don't get it! In Treffen we saw that too and we can tell you it is great!!

For Infest festival we are already working on different live versions for all the tracks including ESH. We don't know the track listing yet because we don't even know what day we are playing or how long the set will be for us.

Orac: What do the next 12 months hold for Marsheaux? Will we see a new studio album before Christmas?

M&S: Not before Christmas but on January-February 2009 for sure. Out of Line wants to release a single first in November with 2-3 new tracks & remixes.

Orac: Does orac ask too many questions?

M&S:Yes and when we'll meet, we'll give you a spank!!! :) :) :)

Message ends...



Marsheaux @ myspace

To hear Marsheaux's 'Sadly' - head on over to the poptastic EY myspace player.


We have five copies of the EMI promo 'Blind' to give away! 'Blind' includes the Marsheaux track 'Ghost' that won't feature on any CD anywhere else. The double CD set also includes, Goldfrapp, Electrobelle, Roisin Murphy and Hot Chip.
To be in with the chance of winning a copy, all you have to do is study the photo of Marianthi and Sophie at the top of this interview. Marsheaux are wearing t-shirts featuring two very famous bands who are also name checked in this interview.
If you know the answers then send us an email with the header 'Marsheaux Blind' .
Comp closes 24/07/08.

Pictured opposite - it is every Greek girl's dream to be in Marsheaux - image courtesy of Undo Records

EY wishes it could escape the dreary UK weather and head over to Barcelona for the Sonar Festival, but on the eve of the Euro 2008 game between Spain and Italy, we are happy to present our next interview and keep with the Spanish theme.
Track 4 of our Undo CD is Oblique's electro stomper 'All We Want' - another track that was added quite late in the day when we discovered the Spanish Sensations just a few months ago.

Oblique's Sonja very kindly answered a few questions for us during a busy schedule prior to rushing off to see Yazoo tonight at Sonar...


Orac: How did it all begin for Oblique?

Sonja: It all started when Gonzalez and I met each other in one of the most important electropop music clubs of Barcelona called Nitsa Club.
Gonzalez was already member of a band called Velcro but he wanted to create something more electronic. That night, after dancing a few tracks from bands such as Human League, Yazoo... and after one or two (or even three) glasses of wine, we shared ideas and decided to
create Oblique.

Orac: Your most recent album 'Wonderful Opulence' has some amazing production, what gear did you use to achieve that sound - virtual synths or serious analogue knob twiddling?

Sonja: The stuff we used is a mixing between both, virtual synth and hardware:
Microkorg, Yamaha An1x, Korg Ms20, Korg R3, Yamaha Rm1x, Korg Z1, Korg Prophecy, Electric Guitar.
Mac Book Pro
Logic Studio 8, Cubase 4
M-Audio Firewire 410
Imposcar, i-Drum, Alpha, Octopus, Sophistry, FM8, Kore Player, Massive, Pro-53, QuadraSid, Vanguard, Albino 3, Predator, etc ...

Orac: You have the fantastic Sonar Festival on your doorstep in Barcelona with Yazoo and Roisin Murphy playing this year, what's the electro scence like in Spain at the moment? Depeche Mode appear to be massive in your country.

Sonja: It's amazing to be see Yazoo this saturday.
The electro scene in Spain is full of bands but this doesn't mean that it's good quality because of the accessibility to easily create music with a computer.
Anyway, there are a lot of good bands that we like that escape from the easy things who make more elaborate music. Depeche Mode have always been a massive band for a lot of Spanish people including Oblique.

Orac: Since appearing on Electronically Yours earlier this year, have you had good feedback resulting from the EY reviews?
Your myspace player is kept busy with many plays a day (often topping a thousand), are you looking to sign to a label or do you prefer to release the tracks yourself via iTunes?

Sonja: Thanks to EY, our earnings in iTunes outside from Spain have increased a lot and we also have more followers. We already know how the music market is with the sales of CDs
and Spain is at the head of the illegal downloads. This has made the sales of our physical CDs lower over the past few years.
We are with a little label since the beginning and we thank them for all their hard work for Oblique but we're really looking for a label that will help us grow and become more recognized.

Orac: You're currently recording a new album and you've premiered a track we really love here at EY called 'Without Making Noise', will the album be a physical CD release and when do you think it'll be ready?

Sonja: We will be back in the studio in July (Greenland Productions) and the physical album shall be ready by Autumn.

Orac: Are you using the same producers who worked on Wonderful Opulence?

Sonja: We're going to work beside Carlos Xavier, producer of Wonderful Opulence, because we are really happy with the work that he did with our last album. He has caught the Oblique sound.

Orac: EY often goes through people's records collections, what are Oblique's top 5 albums of all time?

Sonja:
1.Music for The Masses - Depeche Mode
2.Disintegration - The Cure
3.Dare - Human League
4.The first Album - Madonna
5.The Teaches of Peaches - Peaches

Orac: You've recently covered Ladytron's 'Seventeen', have you heard the new album 'Velocifero' and what do you think of it?

Sonja: We think that the production of the new album is terrific with Alessandro Cortini (Modwheelmood, NIN) and Vicarious Bliss from Ed Banger Records (Justice, etc).
You can see darker and heavier rhythms and Helen's voice has driven us crazy again. 'Velocifero' contains great tracks and melodies.

Orac: Moving on to football brielfy, Fernando Torres...brilliant isn't he?

Sonja: If he was a great player here, now that he's gone to the English league, he will grow up much more. But we don't want him against Barca (he always makes a goal!)... :-)

Orac: We loved the animation for the promo video of 'Disgusting'. What was it like seeing yourself as a CGI character and how did you finance the video?

Sonja: We are lucky to have a friend that is very good in 3D design. He's name is Emil and he works for our last distributor Zukmusic. With work of several months, he built these designs
based on a photo session to create our puppets and we think that the result is awesome. We like our puppets very much.

Orac: EY was close to choosing the 'Wonderful Opulence' title track for 'EY VOL 1' but decided to go with 'All We Want' at the last minute which just has such a killer chorus, tell us more about the track - is it one of your personal faves?

Sonja: 'All We Want' is one of our favourite songs from our most recent release 'Acapulco [Special Edition]'. This track has won an award in Spain for 'Best Electronic Band' and we were in the cover of a newspaper that is read by more than 2 million people.

Orac: When can we expect to see Oblique at an EY show in London?

Sonja: We are looking forward to and hope we close some date very soon.

Orac: Looking to the other EY VOL 1 acts, which ones have you enjoyed discovering this year?

Sonja: The truth is that we have enjoyed with each of the bands that we have discovered, all of them possess a high level and each one has a very personal sound.
We have also met lovely people with whom we have been able to talk via email and even exchange CDs.

Orac: What has been the biggest high point for Oblique so far (you shared the stage with Pet Shop Boys a few years back) and what's the analogue plan for Oblique over the next 12 months?

Sonja: The highest point for us was our first big festival which we shared with Client. Playing alongside Pet shop Boys was amazing but doing it with Client was something more personal.
Our task this year is the recording of our next album that will be ready by Fall.

All the best and thanks for everything!

Message ends...

To hear Oblique's 'All We Want' - head on over to the EY myspace player.

Oblique @ myspace

Coming tomorrow at noon: a rare interview with Greek Sensations Marsheaux!

Northern Kind's analogue knob twiddler Matt Culpin has kindy sent us a review of the recent Yazoo boxset 'In Your Room' whilst we work behind the scenes on getting the Oblique and Marsheaux interviews ready for the site this weekend.
Factory and Mute releases were special for all of us but Matt had a particular fondness for the sleeve designs during his school days. Read on for a charming electro account...

(Yazoo live images © Richard Price 2008)

My attendance record in school was very good, however one very perceptive art teacher noticed a distinct pattern emerge. Being my art teacher he knew I was obsessed with record sleeves, in particular those of Mute & Factory. He cleverly noticed I would be struck down with an odd illness on the occasional Monday morning, but I would return to school in the afternoon miraculously recovered and quite up-beat.
He then matched the pattern of absence with the Mute & Factory release schedule. One Monday afternoon he took me to one side and said 'the game is up Culpin', I came clean, he gave me a wink and nothing else was said. (He should have been a detective not an art teacher.) Anyway, release days have always been big momentous events for me and of course a few weeks ago I made the predictable visit to my local independent record store in anticipation of buying the 'In Your Room' boxset.
What did I find? nothing, so I walked a little further to HMV, still nothing. I then ran to Smiths, Woolworths, ASDA, Sainsburys and finally Borders. At the end of the morning I felt like J.R.Hartley. If I was simply after the songs then iTunes would have been sufficient, however the boxset promised lots of extra goodies, most of them I had in some form or other however the DVD and booklet were the precious things I coveted.

I had to resort to ordering the boxset from the Mute Bank c/o Recordstore.co.uk, for the first time in a while I had to wait almost a week before getting my hands on a new release. I have to say on initial inspection of the boxset I was a little bit disappointed, standard jewel cases, flimsy card sleve and plain artwork, it all felt a little cheap. Considering it costs around 34 pounds I would have expected something more substantial. The Mute Documentary Evidence boxset was really nice, solid and I feel value for money.

So to the content...

Upstairs at Erics

I was 13 in 1982 and like Rob W, 'Upstairs at Erics' was a Christmas present, probably one of the best Christmas presents I ever received. Yazoo for some reason made more sense to me that perhaps Depeche Mode, OMD or The Human League. Why? Well I was a loner and a geek, at that point all the music I loved came from groups with four or more members and even then I knew I would never be comfortable with working and sharing ideas with other people. So the thought of one man creating the music locked away in a dark studio really appealed and of course is pretty much how Northern Kind works.

Electronic music is often referred to as cold and unemotional, before 'Upstairs at Erics' was released I think that was a pretty accurate assessment. Singing along to electronic music had become precise and rigid, but Alison didn't care about the rules and just belted everything out, her sense of timing and phrasing is amazing and it really shouldn't work but it most definitely does, it's as if she is pulling the machines in time to her voice rather than the other way round. Just listen to 'Midnight' and you will hear what I mean.

Vince commented on the sparseness of the arrangements when revisiting them, for me though the atmosphere of this record is captured in this sparseness. No studio wizardry, no gimmicky effects just unashamed confidence and perfectly crafted songs.

For some reason the original CD release of this album omitted 'I Before e except after c' I therefore hadn't heard this track for a very long time, considering Yazoo were then technically a pop act, such a track might have been viewed as filler for the album but for me it demonstrates the try-it-and-see experimental nature of the early 80's, Yazoo just got it right.

Apart from cleaning up the recordings I can't hear a massive improvement in the quality from the mastering, I haven't yet done a direct comparison but it doesn't really jump out as sounding that much improved. I think the DM remasters sound great so this is again slightly disappointing.

However, lets not forget that this album is a true testament to Vince 'the knob twiddler' as proclaimed by Jonathan Ross. Much of it was created using the Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth. In an interview with Vince circa 1982 a music tech magazine published Vince's patch sheets for all the sounds used on 'Don't Go', The first thing I did when I owned one of these synths was dig-out those sheets, it was like resurrecting something from the dead and as if like magic 'Don't Go' came to life in my bedroom.

A truly wonderful album.

You And Me Both

Nowadays an album like this simply wouldn't happen, at the start of recording Vince declared 'I don't wanna do this anymore'. The whole album was recorded under a dark cloud. Vince & Alison were barely talking and whilst the soundscapes where fairly chirpy the lyrics particularly from Alison threw out into the open her true feelings about the situation. Despite all of this, it's a great record and I really like this album, don't forget it still went to No.1 in the UK which was a huge deal back then.

Bonus material.

Apart from the 'SHORT FILM...' there is nothing here that most fans wouldn't already have. The remixes have featured on all the previous releases, the videos can be readily found on YouTube, only the booklet offers some snippets of info that I hadn't seen or read before. I would have been much happier even if just one extra track had been included, 'Get Set', this was recorded but never released and was only ever used as the intro track for a Saturday morning kids show called 'Get Set for Summer'.

As a whole I feel slightly disappointed with this release, it could have been so much better. But none of this really matters, why? Because I now seen Yazoo live.

Matt Culpin


Electro legends gather in Sheffield


Band members from the forthcoming Steel City Tour gathered together yesterday for the first time at a press launch in Sheffield.
Martin Fry of ABC, Joanne Catherall, Philip Oakey and Susan Sulley of The Human League and League founder Sir Martyn Ware were all present at the launch along with Glenn Gregory.
Former League MK 1 band member Ian Craig Marsh was absent yesterday and it now seems likely that he has left Heaven 17 for good (Martin Ware hasn't heard from Ian since the 2005 Scala gig).

Despite Ian's absence, the group shot opposite (taken by the League's David Beevers) is almost as sureal as seeing Yazoo live.
Time will tell if Philip and Martin Ware take the next best step of reforming League MK 1 with or without Ian Craig Marsh....

Steel City Tour dates:

Sun 30/11/08 Carling Academy Glasgow
Wed 03/12/08 Nottingham Royal Centre
Thu 04/12/08 Liverpool Echo Arena
Fri 05/12/08 The Brighton Centre
Sat 06/12/08 Bournemouth International Centre
Mon 08/12/08 Hammersmith Apollo London
Wed 10/12/08 Manchester Apollo
Thu 11/12/08 Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Sat 13/12/08 Sheffield Arena

Tickets available at Ticketmaster

Discuss this tour over at the Secrets forum.

25 years on from one of the most devastating band splits of the 1980's, Yazoo return to London.
Could Alison and Vince possibly match all the hype and anticipation?

(Image: Yazoo at Hammersmith captured by Chi Ming Lai)

When rumours of Yazoo tour dates fist broke on the net, forums were full of speculation. Erasure fans who perhaps weren't around in 1982, questioned whether a Yazoo tour would even sell tickets. How could a band with just five singles and two albums announce such a tour and then have the cheek to charge 45.00 squid a ticket?

At the end of 1981, Vince Clarke made the headlines when he walked away from Depeche Mode claiming he was uncomfortable with all the success. Within a few months of leaving Mode, Vince recruited Basildon singer Alison Moyet who responded to an advert he had placed in a music paper. One month on from the release of Yazoo's debut single 'Only You' (a track Vince had offered to DM as a parting gift but was turned down), Vince's new band had already eclipsed Depeche in popularity.



By the summer of 1982, 'Don't Go' was the most played single on UK radio while over in the US, Sire boss Seymour Stein (who was a few months away from discovering Madonna), was ordering new club remixes of 'Only You' b-side 'Situation' and planning the Yazoo led Brit invasion of America.
Yazoo were massive in 1982, stealing the limelight from some of the more established UK synth acts with a distinctive and warm style of electro that was perfectly suited to the clubs of New York.

One of the best Christmas presents 'baby' Orac got was back in 1982 - 'Upstairs At Eric's' on vinyl - an album that would eventually go on to influence countless artists much like 'Dare' a few years earlier.


In May 1983, Yazoo released their finest single 'Nobody's Diary' that reached number 3 in the UK charts. Like 'Only You', 'Nobody's Diary' needed to played 4-5 times in succession, rushing to pick the needle up and place it to the first groove in order to get that musical fix.
Addictive records, beautifully, produced and packaged with bizarre messages etched near the label (my 7" copy of 'Only You' had the message 'Don't forget the Lil-lets' !)
A few weeks after the release of 'Nobody's Diary', a cloud of electro depression descended over 1983. Radio One's Newsbeat revealed the shocking news that Yazoo had split. The lyrics of 'Nobody's Diary' suddenly became more poignant.
When Take That split in 1995, phone lines were set up with counselors whilst the rest of us cheered.


There were no phone lines for Yazoo fans, just the BBC test card for company in the afternoon and rich tea biscuits (we had it so hard back then).
The release of the second album 'You & Me Both' a few weeks after the split became public, seemed like nothing more than a footnote for me.
I didn't want anything to do with it and I couldn't see the point in having it released as Yazoo were gone. Of course I was curious to hear it and some one brought in a TDK C-60 of the album (recorded in mono much to my horror). I played it once or twice, there seemed to be something missing and I walked away into a brighter world of 'Construction Time Again'. Things were starting to get very interesting with Depeche Mode...

2008 and Yazoo's London dates are sold out (no surprise here at EY), we were lucky to get good tickets.
It all seemed fairly surreal at a pub in Hammersmith where EY met up with JVA (Parralox), Matt Culpin (Northern Kind), Noush, Chi, Rob (Marsheaux's official forum) and Paul (OMD's official webmaster) all pictured below.

JVA had seen Yazoo live a few nights earlier. He wasn't giving too much away but was very excited at the thought of seeing them again. EY had been avoiding Yazoo spoilers since the tour began but when JVA told us all that the support band was some guy with a guitar.
The was a collective look of horror.. we all decided to stay in the pub and order more wine.
Fascinating discussions about Mute kept us all enthralled - Matt has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Mute that would make for good reading on EY. Girls Aloud also cropped up in the conversation with Matt telling us about a meeting with Xenomania's Brian Higgins whose recent Girls Aloud single 'Call The Shots' is pop genius (Higgins is a big Depeche Mode/New Order fan which could explain why EY has warmed to some of the Girls Aloud singles).
It was just a few minutes walk from the pub to Hammersmith Apollo. We all see Yazoo in big red letters above the doors of the Apollo. There are posters everywhere and little flyers for the forthcoming Steel City Tour featuring The League, H17 and ABC. We are all in a dream-like state.



Within minutes, we are back at the bar ordering drinks when Matt spots 'Black Celebration' legend Gareth Jones whose name is on many of the Mute sleeves from the early 80's onwards and he very kindly poses for some photos with our excitable electro gang.

I shake Gareth's hand and thank him for 'Black Celebration' .




It paid to get these Yazoo tickets within hours of them going on sale. I have Noush and JVA on either side of me and we have a fantastic view (though Chi and Rob are right at the front with even bigger smiles). The stage set looks fantastic and futuristic - no clutter but striking. Lot's of purple lights (the pics will look good on EY).



There is such a tremendous buzz amongst the sell-out crowd and the venue abrupt's as soon as Vince and Alison make their entrance. Is it really them?
First track is 'Nobody's Diary' and I'm surprised that they haven't kept it till last. Everyone goes mad as Alison belts out the line 'I can't believe you want to turn the page'.

The page was turned back in 1983, seemingly closed forever but here they are - electro's most influential knob fiddler and the the best vocalist the UK has ever produced.
The sound is crisp and analogue with pounding bass. It can't really get much better than this?
Well it does with 'Bad Connection'. I turn to Noush with a knowing look who is dancing away and tell her 'this should have been a single'.




Next up is one of the 'You & Me Both' tracks. I have to ask JVA for the titles of all the tracks from the second album and he looks at me as if I'm joking. 'Mr Blue' he tells me and it's a mournful number that Alison is really getting into.
The 'Upstairs At Eric's' tracks I know back to front and 'Too Pieces' is delightfully extended but the other live versions are very faithful to their 1982 originals and they sound fantastic.
I was expected some mute responses to the 'You & Me Both' tracks from most of the audience. I thought that like me, many had probably estranged themselves from it but I was wrong.

All the tracks from the second album were greeted to huge applause, both Noush (who rates it as one of her fave albums) and JVA are singing along like everyone else.
Out of the tracks performed on the night that I had only heard 3 or 4 times since 1983, 'Good Things', 'Sweet Time' and 'Mr Blue' convince me that I should get hold of the album, I don't remember them sounding this good (Matt later tells me that many of the 'You & Me Both' tracks have been remixed and tweaked live on the night).




The room is filled with electric light when 'In Your Room' is performed with Vince using a vocoder on the Micro Korg ('He didn't do that in Brighton!' says JVA).
There is a short break after Vince (looking spookily like a cross between the mannequins on the 'Upstairs At Eric's album and an Auton from Dr Who), pushes a reel to reel tape recorder to the front of the stage. They both disappear as the 'lost' 'Upstairs At Eric's' instrumental 'I Before E Except After C' is blasted out remixed with thundering bass. Like Matt, this is the first time I've heard this track since 1983 as it was dropped from subsequent CD releases. It sounds terrific.
When Yazoo return, there are many moments when Alison rushes over to Vince to give him a big hug to huge applause.




When the band perform 'Midnight', JVA says 'goose pimple moment' and he's right. With every 'Upstairs At Eric's' track, I'm transported back to Christmas 1982 and I'm taking the vinyl out of the inner sleeve for the fist time.
I kept getting this image throughout the night.

'State Farm' and 'Situation' are obvious highlights for me, tracks that were good enough to be singles and both John and I nod at each other during 'State Farm' where the deep bass acts as a hook before Alison sings 'And don't it make you feel good?'.


It's one of the best hooks in the history of analogue electro in my humble opinion.
The show closes with 'Only You' - a single I can never tire of - with some of the audience humming along to what sounds like the Flying Pickets version and Alison and Vince laugh.

I struggled to match the high notes that Alison reached so perfectly on the night (comments made by some about her voice on the Jonathan Ross show were absolute rubbish), tonight she gives it her all as we did singing along to every note of 'Only You'.










As we all meet outside the Apollo, Noush says in a matter of fact voice, 'that was the best gig I've ever been too' and Matt, Rob, Chi, JVA and Orac all agree with her...
There is talk of trying to catch a glimpse of the definitive electronic duo, but we don't want to spoil it.
Best not to meet your idols... ;)

Yazoo were worth every penny of the ticket price and I only hope that I get another chance to see them live.


EY rating: 9/10

(Yazoo live pics © Chi Ming Lai 2008)

Track 14 of 'EY VOL 1' comes all the way from LA - a dark and moody affair called 'Ma Romance D Hiver' - a song with menacing shades of DM's 'Little 15' that has already featured in US series 'The L Word' on Showtime (home of EY's fave show 'Supernatural').

Kid Moxie are a chic, all girl duo with Greek born actress Elena and Erica from LA - EY sent questions to both girls and what follows is a chat about acting legend Al Pacino, dressing up, 'Burning Up', and topless shopping in Soho....

Orac: Where did it all begin for Kid Moxie and where did you get that name from?

Elena: it all started about 2 years ago when I moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco and was looking for a roommate. I found Erica through a newspaper ad and we immediately bonded over our love of Vanilla Ice and Moxie cola. We moved in together and immediately started recording in our living room or " cave of creation" as we like to call it.

The name Kid Moxie just seemed like the right thing to call ourselves that would express our childlike experimental spirit and playful sound.

Orac: You were educated in London; do you have any wild Soho stories to tell us?

Elena: I actually lived in SoHo (just off of Carnaby Street) when I was studying in London and it was my own little private "glitter ghetto". I threw costume parties every Monday night, we would all get trashed and go over to club Heaven in our crazy outfits.

Another time I almost got arrested while I was walking around the streets of SoHo on a summer night and decided to take off my shirt just to see what it feels like for guys to walk around shirtless! Its only flesh and tissue anyways. My friend was photographing my experiment so I got the pictures to prove it!

Orac: 'Ma Romance D Hiver' is one of four 'darker' tracks on EY VOL 1 and Undo's pick for the compilation. We love it to bits and see a bit moody DM in there. The track sounds slightly sinister, what's it all about and what does the title mean?

Elena: The title means 'My Winter Romance'. It's a song about spy intrigue and obsession. About following someone around the city on a cold winter night. I imagined the city as dimly lit and the buildings' elevators looking like cages.

Erica: All of our love songs have to be somewhat twisted, mean, or odd in some way.

Orac: The version we have for EY VOL 1 is a remix by Motorbikes In Tokyo. The original track has been used on a US TV show - tell us more. How did it all come about?

Elena: The original track was used on the hit US TV series The LWord' on Showtime. We were very lucky that the music supervisor for the show picked it as we got loads of press and attention because of it.

Then our good friends M.I.T picked the song up and did a killer remix which is the one available at the EY VOL 1. We love the remix as much as the original. M.I.T is a band to look out for!

Orac: You're listed on IMDB as an actress with a film currently in post-production directed by the finest of US actors - Al Pacino. Orac is a massive fan of gangster films and is still scratching his head about the finale of The Sopranos, spill the beans...what is he like?

Elena: I was very lucky to work with someone like Al Pacino, he is a walking legend. He is larger than life in person too. He was very relatable, passionate, quirky and very much of a joker. He made everybody on set laugh all the time. The only thing that surprised me was when I realized that he had blonde highlights!

As far as The Sopranos, I never really watched the show but I did work with two of the main actors from it (Vincent Pastore and Katherine Narducci) on a comedy film called "Slice" that is doing the festival rounds right now.

Orac: You have distinctive Greek looks and have recently completed some TV commercials in the US, have you found it relatively easy to find work out there?

Elena: it is definitely not an easy task to find work in Hollywood, the competition is fierce! So when you do get a job you find yourself being very grateful for it. The last commercial campaigns I did were a Sony Vaio advert and an Absolute vodka campaign with Kanye West!

Orac: Kid Moxie have just completed a cover of one of EY's fave Maddy tracks 'Burning Up', what drew you to that particular track and when will it be released?

Elena: we were between 'Burning Up' and 'I Just Died in your Arms Tonight' by Cutting Crew. The latter brought back so many 4th grade memories of crying about the boy I liked in my Milli Vanilli pillow, which was a very tempting world to revisit!

But we felt that the Madonna track had more room for 'twists and turns'. We had always loved that song and thought we could make it sound more haunting and slightly more deranged than the original.

Erica: I think it's one of Madonna's best songs, and yet it's pretty obscure for no good reason. The lyrics are about someone who's feeling pretty mentally unbalanced and sex-starved.

That's what's so wonderful about it. It's so much more interesting than boring lyrics about mutual love. They would always play all of her other videos endlessly on MTV. But I only saw the 'Burning Up' video a few times. It's darker and smuttier and cruder, her makeup is really pretty revolting, and she's rolling around on the ground and crawling in the middle of the street. There's a shot of a guy driving, and you always wonder if he's going to hit her. It always makes me nervous in the best way.

Orac:Are you a sci-fi fans and do you know what a Dalek is?

Elena: i think a Dalek is a cute little robot. But its also lethal, right? I think Orac is obsessed with it cause he has pictures of it on his myspace page!

Erica: One of our new tracks is called 'French Disco' in Space," so yes, we are fans of sci-fi. I love anything sci-fi if it also mixes in a great sense of humor, so Douglas Adams' books are some of my favorites. And I've always been really hot for Luke Skywalker, especially when he gets all petulant. But I had to cheat and look up what a Dalek was.

Orac:Tell us about the records that convinced a young Elena in Greece that a career in pop was the way forward?

Elena: I was a crazed Michael Jackson fan. I even put on shows for my neighbors where I dressed and danced like him! 'Bad' was definitely my bible in elementary school. I also had tons of vinyl of Bros, Rick Astley and New Kids On the Block!!!

But it was in high school that I started loving Madonna, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, Erasure and Eurhythmics that I hope have had a deeper influence in my music than Rick Astley!

Erica: everything has been Gary Numan lately for me, definitely Replicas and The Pleasure Principle. I felt pretty lost in America in the 90s with everything that was popular. I don't think I'll ever get Sonic Youth. But I never get tired of the LCD Soundsystem album.

Orac: You have a promo picture of Kid Moxie in bed with a Micro Korg, what are your other most treasured synths when it comes to finding unique sounds? Do you get really involved in the technical side of messing round with knobs and dials on synths?

Elena: we do pride ourselves on being knob nerds. The good ol micro korg has infinite sound possibilities if you got the time to spare.

Erica: At first I didn't think I had the proper background in knob wanking, but then I started creating sounds into my Casio CZ-101 and feeding it through a guitar amp with distortions. I can get out-of-hand with using the pitch bend dial. I grew up listening to my dad's record collection, and since he worked in recording in the 60s he had a lot of early analog synth experimental records. They were pretty mysterious and haunting sounds to a little kid, and I'm still in awe of the noise you can make with some really passionate knob twiddling.

Orac: What do the next 12 months hold in store for Kid Moxie?

Elena: we are currently working on our second album with our producer Daniel Hoal at his home studio and at the Sonora Studios, here in Los Angeles. Daniel has been instrumental in forming the right sound for our first EP 'Human Stereo' and for our current album. We are also planning a bunch of live shows in the L.A area.

Orac: Will you come and dj at a future EY event in London?

Elena: I would love to but only if you let me play some Milli Vanilli!

Orac: Out of all these new female lead EY bands, have any found their way on to your iPod? Who do you currently rate?

Elena: Well, I have liked Marsheaux for a while, I think they are innovators in the Greek electro scene. Through the EY compilation, I came to really like Fotonovella and Parallox 'X Minus One'. The Fotonovella track has a beautiful breeze of mystique and the Parallox 'X' song is catchy and bouncy.

Orac: Out of the two of you - who can down the most wine?

Erica: Meee! I just had a bartender compliment me on my alcohol tolerance a few weeks ago.

Elena: I get drunk with half a glass of wine. Such a cheap date.

Message ends....

To hear the MIT remix of 'Ma Romance D Hiver' - head on over to the EY myspace player.

Related link: Kid Moxie @ myspace

Here's an unusually enchanting track much like the Bats For Lashes 'What's A Girl To Do' for left-of-center oddness and so adorable.

When we first heard this track, we thought of Manga and some odd Japanese connection but the artist is Lykke Li who hails from Sweden.

The promo video actually looks like something from the totured imagination of another Swedish band - The Knife....and it could result in nightmares with spooky League of Gentlemen imagery in the form of two skipping twins whilst Lykke breaks into some Robyn-like jerky dance moves.
'I'm Good, I'm Gone' also boasts a very original chorus that keeps popping into the collective head of EY with well placed handclaps that kick it all off and on the evidence of this track, Sweden may have their very own portable Bjork.

Related link: Lykke Li @ myspace



Our 16 track electro CD 'EY VOL 1' now looks set for a release in late July with one track currently being remixed by the producers of 'Peek A Boo', On June 28th, Orac will be interviewed by Chi for the very first EY podcast in a London wine bar that will act as a track by track guide to the new CD.

Our (hopefully not too drunken) podcast will be available to download on to your iPods via EY shortly after it is edited.
Are series of 'EY VOL 1' interviews continue shortly with Kid Moxie (who have just recorded a cover of Madonna's 'Burning Up' for Undo/EMI) , Marsheaux, Rachel Car and Noush with even more to follow in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday night, EY travels into London along with Parralox and Northern Kind to see Yazoo. Our review of the night will hit this page by Friday.

Today's featured 'EY VOL 1' artist are Australia's newly formed Parralox who premiered four of the catchiest tracks this year over on their myspace player between February and April.

Fronted by 'Empire State Human' Roxy, her powerful vocals blend well with John Von Ahlen's impressive array of analogue equipment that includes the legendary 'Love & Dancing' Linn Drum.

There were many emails sent from EY to Undo Records as we tried to decide which of the Parralox tracks we would eventually go for as they were all so strong and brilliantly crafted.
With a love for the New York electro sound of 1983 and Shannon's 'Let The Music Play', and with time running out till the duplication deadline, EY eventually chose the crisply produced 'X Minus One'


In the weeks that have followed, Parralox have just completed their debut album 'Electricity' set for release on CD later this year.

Chi & Orac caught up with Parralox's analogue manipulator John Von Ahlen via the wonders of cyberspace ...

Chi: Australia doesn't have an obvious synthesiser band lineage although you gave the world the Fairlight CMI, so can you recall your first electronic music experience?

John: My father was totally mad for anything electronic, and used to take me to an electronics workshop every Saturday morning. I remember when I was about 9 years old and didn't go to school one day because I was sick, my father bought me one of those little electronic kits with the spring coils. I remember I was like a mad scientist going through the book reconfiguring the board into all sorts of things like Morse code generator and so on. Shortly after I bought a DIY synthesizer kit from Dick Smith Electronics and made my first synth at age approx 10. I haven't looked back since. Actually it was more like a stylophone but it had lots of wires and button so I was quite happy.

Chi: What was the track that made you think 'I want to do that for a job"?

John: Dead easy answer. The Human League's song The Things That Dreams Are Made Of. It was early December in 1981 when I heard that song on a Saturday afternoon and my mind was completely blown away. I was already a mad electronics and sci-fi fan and grew up on Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Lost In Space etc and then I heard this electronic noise coming from the radio and was spellbound. Something inside me connected with the clinical precision of this music. It was the perfect combination of great song writing and great production and I soon started to immerse myself in electronic music. And I haven't stopped.

Chi: Your sound is authentically 80's, are you using virtual gear and plug-ins or are you actually sampling the sounds from the real instruments like the Linn Drum?

John: Both. I have a large collection of vintage analogue and digital synth plus just about every VSTi every created. For our first track we hired in a Fairlight CMI IIx and borrowed a friend's Linn LM1 and I collected direct samples from both machines. I also have a friend in Brisbane, Ken Evans (Tycho Brahe) that has a Linn Drum. He sent me the original Giorgio Moroder Tom Samples and I use them a lot! I'm a strong believer in flexibility and approaching things from a new angle, which you need when creating music or any other form of art. Otherwise you tend to repeat yourself and then things get boring. I personally love the 80's as I grew up in it, and the music was so vastly creative, brave, bold and original. I don't listen to radio now and never watch MTV. Modern music was been commercialised by the major record labels and turned into a marketable commodity which lost it's soul probably the same time as American Idol hit the idiot box. I've never watched that show and never plan to!

Chi: How did you and Roxy meet and how do you think you compliment each other?

John: We actually met via another artist I produce (Johnny X) when we all worked on a track together called 'Electric Nights' that won the Australian MusicOz Award (Dance Category) in 2004!
Since then I have used Roxy as a session singer in Subterrane Studios (which I run) and for various projects that needed a female vocal. We definitely compliment each other because we get along really well, we never fight and work so smoothly together in the studio. We both have different musical backgrounds and that's always a bonus because we each bring something unique to the table.

Chi: "X Minus One" sounds very 'New York'...have you ever been there? If not, how did you capture that tremendous feel?

John: I haven't been to New York as yet, but it's on my to-do list. Thanks for the compliment on the track! That song is just another example of the randomness of the creative process. At the start of that song I knew that I wanted a hip hop / electro feeling so I just channelled some Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash and before I knew it the song was done!

Orac: What are your top 5 albums of all time?

John: Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
The Human League - Love & Dancing
Yazoo - You And Me Both
Propaganda - A Secret Wish

Orac: What's the most played song on your iPod?

John: Today I was listening to :
Eurythmics - Shame
Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
David Bowie - Loving The Alien
New Order - Touched By The Hand Of God
Jean-Michel Jarre - Diva
Heaven 17 - This Is Mine (Filmix)
Scritti Politti - Wood Beez 12inch
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
Strawberry Switchblade

Although I don't have one specific favourite mainly because I listen to music nearly every waking hour and there's always a new favourite song every other day.

Orac: Prior to Parralox - what were you both doing?

John: I still am involved in my other project The Tenth Stage as well as running Subterrane Recording Studio which involves producing/engineering/remixing and programming for local and international artists. In 1994 I was in another 2 piece electro/pop band called Nova, who were signed to Sony Music Australia and gained local fame but never broke internationally. I'm also a Nurse on the weekend and teach kickboxing during the week if the Dojo needs an instructor!

Orac: From this new breed of female led electro - which bands have impressed you the most?

John: Marsheaux, Client, Electrobelle, Noush, Northern Kind, Robots In Disguise, Angelspit, Ladytron, Goldfrapp, Eurythmics and YAZOO! Well, the last two aren't new but are hugely influential on me.

Chi: What are Parralox's future plans?


John: Well, in the immediate future we plan on releasing our debut album sometime in July 2008. We always record a new song every Monday at 4pm, so that will continue. We plan on shooting a video in the next few months... Then I guess we will see what happens with the debut album. At the moment we are creating music for the sheer joy of it, and any commercial success that follows will be considered a bonus.




Message ends....


Related link: Parralox @ myspace

'X Minus One' can now be heard over on the EY myspace player.

Operating Moogs between Leicester and the home of UK electro Sheffield, girl/boy band Northern Kind last year blasted onto the scene with their debut album '53 Degrees North'.

Multiple music blogs quickly picked up on the album and Northern Kind soon found themselves in the iTunes Top 10 download charts across Europe.

A huge fan of Vince Clarke and a keen historian of all things Mute, NK's keyboard programmer and producer Matt Culpin blew EY away with a stomping extended version of their track 'On & On' that has been remixed especially for 'EY VOL 1'.
The mix resurrects all the things we still love about the 'conventional' early 80's 12", with extra analogue melodies and all the best bits of the song expanded and enhanced with stunning production.


This previously unreleased mix is track number 6 on our compilation and with the band posting their first ever podcast this week (more on that in just a bit), EY contributor Chi Ming Lai was keen to put a few questions to NK's singer/song writer Sarah Heeley about guilty musical pleasure.
EY will be firing some techy questions to Matt once he returns from a week long UFO watch in Bogner Regis.

Chi: Northern Kind's sound is obviously a development of Yazoo and The Human League. You mentioned that your background was not electro so what non-electro influences do you think you bring to the songs?

Sarah H: Strong female artists - like Madonna, Aretha, Annie Lennox and Sam Brown have all influenced me. Indie bands like the Smiths, The Wonderstuff and the Stone Roses were a big influence lyrically, a lot of their songs were more like poetry which I really love. And then there's the stuff that I've enjoyed that is all about just jumping on a podium and freaking out (I like dancing on podiums, cos I'm quite small!) Like really funky-ass house music, Prince and the Scissor Sisters. Anything and everything cool influences me.



Chi: Can you remember the first concert you ever went to and what effect it had on you?

Sarah H: The Wonderstuff, De Montfort Hall, 1989. WOW. I think this is the first and only concert at which I screamed like a girl! I think this was the 'HUP' tour and my sister and I had the Hup poster in our bedroom, which was the shape of a big, blue moon. It was at this time that I started to get really into the indie scene, with my pierced nose and my Doc Martens. We used to hang out at the Fan Club and Sector Five in Leicester, and this was the concert that kicked off this chapter of growing up - very happy and exciting times.

Chi: Matt's mentioned he worked with Limahl from Kajagoogoo. Is there any guilty pleasures, musically you can tell us about?

Sarah H: Well, I've worked with all the greats; The Krankies, Keith Harris and Orville, Russ Abbott. That takes some beating, I can tell you.

Chi: Where would you like to see Northern Kind heading? Going darker or more poppy. Or even sounding more conventional?


Sarah H: Northern Kind is just evolving into it's own thing - it's dark sometimes, bright at others. I think it's really cool, interesting music. I suppose the more people that buy into it, the more conventional it will become. We've got direction and focus, and just want to keep making music that we love and would want to listen to ourselves.

Message ends...

(B&W images: Cordu)

Northern Kind have this week posted a fascinating podcast where they answer questions about all things NK related plus news of some major interest the band received earlier this year from the manager of a well known artist. There's also sneak previews of some brand new tracks (Sarah reveals which NK song she wrote with Girls Aloud in mind), and a forthcoming stomper played towards the end of the podcast with the title 'Goodbye' is one of NK finest tracks to date.
Did Matt once program synths for Depeche...? Or was it drum patterns for Erasure? Don't believe everything you read on the internet ;)
All is revealed via this link where you can also grab a free EP sampler of the forthcoming 'Xerotic'.

To accompany this series of 'EY VOL 1' interviews, we shall be uploading various tracks to our myspace player for a limited time only. Today we showcase the new extended 'EY VOL 1' remix of 'On & On'. Grab the speaker remote control, turn it on full and follow this link...

Related links:
Northern Kind @ myspace
Northern Kind official site

More interviews with EY artists to follow...

We have BBC Radio 6 and Laura Laverne to thank for introducing us to a brilliant slice of glistening pop from UK band Mystery Jets.

Released last week, the Jets 'Two Doors Down' is a wonderful homage to those instantly catchy summer singles that blessed the charts on a weekly basis between 1981 and 1983 -
when many of the middle eighths were all provided by cheerful (never cheesy) saxophone solos by men in stay press trousers.


It will only take one listen and you'll have this chirpy chorus in your head for the next week (we are still trying to somehow dislodge 'Two Doors Down' but it keeps dragging us back to 1982).
A perfect summer hit, 'Two Doors Down' has the jangly qualities of Lloyd Cole's 'Perfect Skin' (84), The Bluebells cover of 'Young At Heart' (84) and the cherished 'Since Yesterday' by Strawberry Switchblade that really signaled the end of that glorious era of great pop singles in January 85 (surely its time someone covered this song?)..

Every genius pop track needs a memorable promo video and the Jets low budget effort opposite manages to mimic just about every Duran and Spandau video every made and it eerily captures a moment in time for those who religiously watched Top of The Pops every Thursday night....


EY Rating 8.5/10

Related link: Mystery Jets @ myspace


Coming shortly, the big EY interview with Marsheaux and the very first EY podcast!