Electronically Yours

Eyeliner-electro at EY again with the dark duo Crystal Castles who have finally decided to entertain us with a video for 'Celestica', even though 'Baptism' from the same album is already pushing its way on to playlists now.

Crystal Castles are not ones to be predictable with their unique brand of electro, or able to slot into any sort of box for the very very few videos they release. 'Celestica' is set in a graveyard with, unusually, Alice, more glam than noir for a change, floating about in an 'almost' conventional 'frontwomany' way.

No converse trainers, no stage diving and unpredictable dancing, this video almost looks choreographed in its atmospheric, moody and haunting way. It perfectly suits the eerie melody of this more accessible release from them...but don't think they've sold out or gone 'arty' just yet.


Every now and then the video shows glimpses of the duo in the more recognisably hooded up 'festie electro' way we recognise them and begs the question of reality and the haunting point they are maybe trying to make?

The pretty graveyard, the oddball children and the deserted gothic building trapping Alice behind bars gives the perfect blur of ghost or reality. It comes across in this video and suits the track so well.



Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black' is Alice, with the strange children catching glimpsing of her in a very Henry James 'The Turn of the Screw' way...maybe that's just me but this video reminded me of the two ghost story classics.

Ethan and Alice walk off towards the end in the more recognisable Crystal Castles way and it leaves you wondering if the glamorous Alice lying in the grass in a graveyard under the nightsky was real or some manifestation.

Great video for a great track and not at all what EY expected from them...but this is the charm of Crystal Castles.







Orac's electro round-up - La Roux / Heaven 17 / Depeche DVD & League book on the way & electro Glasto !








BEF girl Elly Jackson AKA La Roux took time out from US Billboard domination for a full live set at Glastonbury on Friday night.








Elly was backed by dancers as she performed most of the tracks from her debut album plus an electro cover of The Rolling Stones track 'Under My Thumb' (at EY HQ, we can already hear how an analogue bassline would work beautifully on this track.



Elly was also joined on stage by Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory for a surprise performance of 'Temptation' - 'prompting loud approval from the heaving crowd' according to the electro friendly NME.

Heaven 17's official website also reports that a new album compiled by La Roux consisting of tracks that inspired their debut album will soon be released on as part of UK label Renaissance's new Sidetracked series.



The album is released on July 26th in the UK and includes our personal Heaven 17 fave 'Come Live With Me'.







Other artists featured include Japan, Fever Ray, Tears For Fears and EY faves Blancmange, along with La Roux's recent Glastonbury cover of The Stones 'Under My Thumb'.
For details on the full tracklisting plus details of how to grab a copy, please go to the Renaissance website here.






Mojo journalist David Buckley whose biography of David Bowie shifted more than 40,000 copies, contacted EY last week with news of his next project: 'Human League, Heaven 17, and The Sound Of The Steel City'.
David's biography of Sheffield's electro Godfathers who changed UK pop forever will be published by Aurum Press in 2011.




In a news update on his site David explains the background behind this highly anticipated release that will delight many EY readers:

'Sometime last year I decided it would be a great idea to write two books simultaneously. My second book for 2011, to be published by Aurum Press, will go back to the era when the synth was mightier than the guitar: the mid-to-late 1970s and the groovily in-chic Eighties. So far, the fabulous Heaven 17 have given their full co-operation for the book. Thanks to Martyn and Glenn for the interviews!'

To keep up to date with the latest on David's projects including a Kraftwerk biography, please bookmark his website here.



In other rather fab electro news, Ladytron have confirmed that they have just completed two brand new songs for a 'Best Of' which is due for release later this year. A new Tron album is also scheduled for 2011 and the news was posted by Reuben on the band's Facebook page.


German Depeche Mode site Depechemode.de reports that the band will be releasing their first ever Blu-ray DVD. Recorded during 'The Sound of The Universe' tour in Barcelona, Mute are expecting to release this live DVD in October.




For those of you who are utterly, utterly depressed by the World Cup and those ruddy horn thingies, you can seek refuge by watching the Pet Shop Boys Glasto performance over at the BBC.
The Pets won't ever let you down unlike John Terry, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, the linesman, the referee, Mick McCarthy's God awful commentary etc....


Watch the performance here and be amazed.


Once you've done that, take a look at new EY faves May68 performing a delightful new ditty called 'The Prisoner'. Lead singer Jude is 'not a number'...but bears an uncanny resemblance to Blake's 7's Servalan and we rather like that a lot.
Jump here for May68.


90's electro legends Orbital also took to the stage late last night with a guest appearance by the latest Dr Who Matt Smith.
EY has struggled with the latest season of 'Dr Who' for many reasons (poor scripts mainly and a daft-non-event of a finale), but Matt has been an inspired choice for the role and you can watch him dancing with Orbital here.

(With thanks to Alin Sand)

Blurring the boundaries with sounds of punk and disco to produce dancefloor filling electro pop, MAY68 are Camille Bertin, Jude Wainwright, Jonny Sture, Owen Manns and Matt Dutton.

After they were featured as breakthrough act in NME at the beginning of June and with the consequent buzz of hearing 'My Ways', EY had to catch up with them en route to Glastonbury. We wanted to find out more about this band coming from Manchester's currently 'electro-centred' music scene, refreshing after years of 'footie lad' indie rock bias .

Bursting with sparkly synth pop catchiness coupled with powerful vocals has got them the recommendation of '25 Things You Have To Do At Glastonbury 2010' in NME this week.


With their appearance on the 'BBC Introducing Stage' on Saturday night, the future is looking electro again...

EY were very excited to discover your single 'My Ways' via NME's 'Breakthrough Band of the Week'.






We can hear a lot of Heaven 17 and Bronski Beat in this track, what genre do you consider your music to be and who are your main influences?

MAY68: It's great to hear this because even though we don't think that we're directly influenced by Heaven 17 and Bronski Beat we're all into what they did.
We're actually playing with Heaven 17 at the Manchester Pride in August which is a real honour.

Our main influences are probably Talking Heads, Daft Punk, Prince and the whole DFA scene, but we like to take a bit of everything to make music.

There are elements of house, post-punk and disco in what we do, but eventually we write pop songs.

How did you all meet and how long have you been May68?

MAY68: Jonny (guitar, synths), Owen (bass) and Cam (drums, vocals) used to play in an indie band previous to forming MAY68.

When it ended at the start of 2008 we decided to start a new project, got Matt involved on keys and percussion and met Jude (vocals) through friends.
We quickly realised that she could sing, she was the final touch and perfect addition to the line-up.


We've been going for about two years now.

Curious name too, any connection to the protests in French History or is that too obvious?

MAY68: The name is a reference to the agitated period of riots in France, but rather than being a political or historical reference we see it as an allusion to the DIY ethos, creative minds and spirit of community that were driving the students during the protests.

We try to push ourselves with the same energy.

Lots of exciting things coming up for you, we've noticed you are on the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury, shortlisted for Lovebox festival and supporting EY faves Heaven 17 in August. Are there any more festivals dates to look out for or gigs in London?

MAY68: We're playing a Club NME show in London on July 2nd at Koko, then headlining Be at Proud Gallery on August 21st.

We are waiting in anticipation for more tracks especially since hearing 'The New You', another stomper which we hope gets a video soon?
Will this be the next single and is there an album in the pipeline?

MAY68: 'The New You' was the B side of 'My Ways', so for now it probably won't get a video but we're currently working on our second single which should be out in September.
We can't reveal any details yet but there will definitely be a video for this, we enjoyed making the one for 'My Ways' and pay a lot of attention to the visuals in relation to our music.

We're working on the album too, which hopefully will come out at some point next year.

Great live clip on myspace of you doing 'The Duke is Dead' and 'Carla' last year, how do you think your music has evolved since you first starting working together?

MAY68: We program a lot of the music using our laptops, then it's reworked in the practice room with live instruments, drums, bass, guitar, synths, percussions and of course vocals.

We always wanted to play dance music with a full band, but it took a while to put it together and start finding our own sound.

Eventually we realised we also wanted to write some pop songs which probably played a big part in what our approach to writing and arranging music has become.

As for the live set we've been working really hard and it's become a lot tighter and energetic.

It is all happening very fast for you and must seem you are caught in a whirlwind right now?

MAY68: Yeah but it's great! It seems a lot of people get into it, probably more than we would have thought. We always try to please ourselves first but when it goes out you hope that it will also please some people and get noticed.

The exciting part of it at the moment is the live shows, we get to play some prestigious festivals this summer and hopefully we'll tour in Europe in October, it's very exciting!

There's something rather Karen O/Siouxsie Sioux in the vocals for these tracks, with such a powerful voice and great boy/girl vocal interaction, what vocalist would you most love to be compared to?

Jude: I think Annie Lennox, Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks are my three main influences when I sing and play live so it would be awesome to be compared to any of them, they're such commanding and beautiful women, from the way they dress and the way they perform, plus they look damn cool!

There seems to be a lot of electro coming out of Manchester music scene right now, why do you think that is and who are you currently listening to?

It's just the natural regeneration of a music scene. There has been a lot of guitar music coming out of Manchester in the past fifteen years, after the Hacienda era, and people are getting tired of it now.

The thing with the Manchester music scene at the moment is that it's not just electro, there are a lot of bands and club nights doing different things but with a similar drive to create something new, which makes it very interesting. Dutch Uncles are a brilliant example.

At the moment we listen to a lot of house, krautrock and pop: Acid Washed, Lindstrom, Neu! and Prince to name but a few. The latest (last?) LCD Soundsystem album is also very good.

After Heaven 17 worked with La Roux so successfully with the classic 'Temptation', are there any synth pop heroes you would like to work with?

Our picks would probably be Giorgio Moroder and The Human League.

(With thanks to Cam)

Related links:
MAY68 @ Myspace
MAY68 artist page on BBC Glastonbury
NME: '25 things you have to do at Glastonbury'
MAY68 official Facebook page

EY has a perfect remedy for that blue Monday sinking feeling and a dismal Eng-ger-land display in the World Cup on Saturday...

Tests prove that new electro is also the perfect cure for any alcohol induced hangover (along with a can of Coke) and the following two tracks have perked up EY HQ this morning...



When we were first told about this Kele track during a baking hot Saturday afternoon a few weeks back, we nodded enthusiastically for several minutes having totally misheard the conversation (we were thinking of Kelis whose latest single 'Acappela' contains a similar 'techno' electro groove).







Kele Okereke is of course the frontman of Bloc Party who released a pretty decent debut album 'Silent Alarm' back in 2005.


Rumour has it that Kele was keen to go all out electro on the 4th Bloc Party album but the guitarist of the band wasn't too impressed (guitarists are such miserable buggers), and Kele decided to go solo.



'Tenderoni' is Kele's first solo release and the single is currently causing big waves over at XFM and Radio One amazingly enough (who have added it to their weekly A-list).

A frantic dance track with impressive production, 'Tenderoni' reminds us much of Inner City and Kele's debut solo album 'The Boxer' which is due for release on June 21st could well be one to look out for.


Kele @ Myspace





The Key!

EY is simply in awe of these Camden tricksters with their glorious hooks and euphoric sing-a-longa choruses and here's a youtube track that we are hoping will feature on our most anticipated album release of 2010 - 'The Golden Years'.




'The Key' is a bit more subdued than previous efforts but stashed with more hooks than your average album and still working from a Tennant/Lowe template with some wonderful analogue synths (no digital nonsense with this band).


This song also reminds us a little bit of Tony Mansfield's brilliant but short lived New Musik and we welcome anyone who sounds like that band with open and loving arms.








There are conflicting reports about Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's debut album online with some saying that Trevor Horn has taken them under his wing for production and remixing duties, whilst others are mentioning Pet Shop Boys producer Stephen Hague.






Either of the two would be great but these songs are so good that we are planning a Cava kiss drenched street party in Ascot on August 16th for 'The Golden Years'.

We expect to get very drunk and dance the way that we feel...manically.


Related links:

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool interview with The Sun
Qu Est Le Swimming Pool @ myspace




(With thanks to Babooshka and Barry Rosier)

It was with great sadness to learn that Mick Karn, bass player (very individual bass player!) with the band Japan has announced on his website that he has cancer.

It is at an advanced stage and his friends are appealing for funds.

I read his biography last year and realised how his talent as a musician has been both a blessing and a curse.

He has struggled financially for many years now and it seems this will break him.




Hopefully this appeal will be able to make a difference to his life and his family.

Mick's bass up front, combined with the electronic sounds of Barbieri's keyboards made 'Tin Drum' one of the albums of the 80's and the album that produced the memorizing 'Ghosts'.

Please take time to visit Mick's site at www.mickkarn.net





6 Music has posted an item with the news that Midge Ure is planning a a fundraiser for Mick. The live event will take place later this year and could feature former Japan members.

On the subject of Mick's huge influence on many of the artists of that time including Duran Duran, Midge pays tribute to Karn's unique talent, 'I think Mick's influenced everybody, until I heard Japan, I had never heard a bass guitar played like that, it was almost like playing a lead instrument, incredibly percussive and melodic, something that inspired me.'

For the 6 Music news report, please jump here.

The Roundhouse London, June 5th.

An architectural tribute to the days of steam engines, a symbol of the enduring relationship between human aspiration and machine, make this most perfect of possible venues for Short Circuit.


The warm minimal electronic strains of Finnish wunderkind Jori Hulkonnen's DJ set fill the room with soft appealing bleeps, moments of glitchtronic idm and the suitably quirky Japanese futurists Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Having collaborated with Foxx on his 2005 album 'Dualizm', Jori is a welcome and contemporary addition to what could have been in danger of being a nostalgia heavy night - at least on paper.
Engaging without being strident or unobtrusive, Hulkonnen stikes quite the right note to open the evening.

Seen milling expectantly during Hulkonnen's set is a veritable hive of Numants, rabid Gary Numan fans busy catching up with other devotees, checking the set times and generally attempting to manage their feverish impatience.

Numan has a very loyal, interested fanbase, and they are obvious by their t-shirts and expectation.



It is no surprise then to hear the various heckles and watch the furrowed brows when it is announced at the end of Hulkonnen's set that Numan would be performing after John Foxx rather than before as advertised due to delays.

The very accomodating Mark Jones from BBC 6's 'Back to the Future' steps in to Numan's shoes and entertains the crowd, fending off the chant of 'Numan, Numan' which rises and falls intermittently.
Mark soothes the Numanoids with some retro-electro favourites from Numan, The Normal, Fad Gadget, Soft Cell and more.

He suffers some obvious sound issues, distortion from the turntables and skipping records (including, to his chagrin, a couple of Numan tracks!), but takes it in his laconic stride, laughing at himself and keeping the tracks crowd friendly.


Possibly too crowd friendly for the afficianados, and certainly more mainstream than one would expect from the BBC's chosen Dean Of Synth Education - but Mark certainly fills the Gary shaped gap well enough.

The big ticket attraction for tonight is unarguably the John Foxx live show.

A veritable cluster of modular and keyboard analogue on stage, enough to seriously occupy the hands of the six to seven players who grace the stage when required, and certainly enough to provide high anticipation for the gathered crowd, who - whilst uncommonly quiet and still throughout the night - are preparing to drink in as many sine waves by osmosis as possible whilst the Quiet Man performs.



A cloud of smoke forms as the players, including Benge and three more modular wranglers, take to the stage and generate warm sonorous tones, and we await Foxx's presence.








He takes his time, and a by now the crowd shout and cajole until eventually John stands behind a tower of synthetic generators, and begins to present to us a set of highlights from his 1980 album 'Metamatic'.


What follows could be almost mythology, a matter for hyperbole, certainly, as Foxx's set is truly nothing short of astonishing.





Anyone who has followed his career is aware that Foxx is a construct - a characterisation of ideas about isolation, urban living, futurism, the romance of mechanisms, dreams of electronic emancipation and post-modern love.
The way Dennis Leigh inhabits the character of Foxx onstage is breathtaking. He is the shadowy figure, the quiet observer, the point at which dreams and synthesis coincide.


Watching his projections tells you all you need to know about the vision of John Foxx, engineering, femme fatales, travel, motion, imagination, noir, a man in a dark suit in pursuit of the unattainable.

His ensemble perform 'Plaza', 'This City, Burning Car' and 'He's A Liquid' to a rapturous response, culminating in 'No-One Driving' and, of course, 'Underpass'.


By now, even Numan's most slavish followers are caught in the headlights of Foxx's show.








He calls on stage Louis Gordon and performs selections from their work together that includes 'Shadow Man', 'A Million Cars', 'An Ocean We Can Breath'. It is intense, technocentric and far more hard hitting than the 'Metamatic' material, and divides the audience a little. Nevertheless, Foxx's commanding presence and Gordon's obvious enthusiasm hold attention for the short interlude.

What follows in an unexpected highlight. He brings on Benge and performs John Foxx and the Maths songs including some new material alongside 'Running Man' and 'Watching A Building On Fire'.







Whilst announcing and introducing, Foxx throws fans an exciting morsel, the news that he is writing with Mira from Ladytron, and that he will perform their new song next.


Small hopes rise in my camp that he is about to bring Mira herself on stage. Alas no, but the song itself is exciting and builds much curiousity about what is to come from that particular collaboration.

A consummate performer, Foxx understands both the intent gazes and shouted requests of his audience. His fans want more than anything, to hear some early Ultravox before they leave the building.
John doesn't disappoint, bringing his band back on stage along with Ultravox MK1 guitarist Robin Simon for renditions of 'Quiet Men' and 'Slow Motion', to the obvious relief and then rapture of much of the crowd.













Foxx retakes his place on stage for the encores to obvious audience delight and gifts to his fans Ultravox's 'The Man Who Dies Every Day'.

A new Maths track follows before giving a second break to the crowd who still hold out for one final sonic statement, and they receive it with the ultimate finale delivered in Ultravox anthem 'Just For A Moment'.


The stage then empties and so does the floor, with thirsts to be quenched, Numan t-shirts to be rearranged and a rearrangement of Fan Placement. Foxx fans backward, Numan fans front centre.

Numan gives his faithful time to recover and the roadies time to clear the stage, before he and Ade Fenton treat the crowd to their laptop/Ipad DJ set.

Mixing Fenton-style harder techno with obvious crowd-pleasers like 'Blue Monday' and Basement Jaxx's 'Where's Your Head At', fans and this reviewer are a little puzzled by their set.


Sounding very little like Numan's own work and more like a set designed finally get the audience to move their feet a little, it is a melange of mixed merit.





Certainly it doesn't appeal much to his fanbase who would be far happier to hear a set of Numan's own back catalogue, and they begin to drift away from the stage.

The under-40 segment of the crowd which to be honest is quite sizeable possibly thanks to shows like 'Back To The Future', start to shimmy in a University Disco kind of way, focussing on their friends, their beer and their shoes rather than watching Numan's every move.


Essentially Fenton and Numan promised a DJ set, and that is what they deliver. Unfortunately, much of the magic of a Numan performance is in his character and charisma and that is far more difficult to perceive behind a laptop.



Short Circuit performers

Benge (synthesizers, percussion and bass)
Steve D'Agostino (synths)
Serafina Steer (synths)
Jean-Gabriel Becker (synths and bass)
Liam Hutton (drums and percussion)

VJs Jonathan Barnbrook and Karborn

Guests: Louis Gordon, Robin Simon

Short Circuit EY photos © Mike Cooper 2010
EY presentation: Orac

With warm thanks to Steve Malins.

Related links & further reading:
The official John Foxx website
John Foxx @ Myspace
BBC News interview with John Foxx
John Foxx youtube channel
Mark Reeder @ Myspace





La Roux scores massive US hit!
Text: Orac





Little Boots may well have struggled with her career over in the US, but La Roux is having no such trouble in weaning the Americans away from their R'n'B and guitars....

The girl from BEF is celebrating this week with news that 2009 EY fave 'Bulletproof' has cracked the US Billboard Top 10 at number 8 .

This is huge achievement in a market that has previously been lukewarm to electronic music and a timely reminder that La Roux is the only one from last year who is still making waves.

Here's how the NME reported the news.

La Roux are currently recording a new album and there is talk of further collaborations with synth innovators Heaven 17. For more La Roux related hints, have a look at our Mega Glenn Gregory Interview further down this wonderous page.

And finally...Erasure legend Andy Bell 'hurt by 'horrible' La Roux jibe'?
Find out more over at one of EY's fave sites - the totally legendary Digital Spy.

This just in via email from EY reader Patrick Carr...

'Hi,
The Human League are playing a show in Galway, Ireland on Saturday July 24th as part of the Galway Arts Festival.
They are being supported by Heaven 17. It promises to be a fantastic gig as Galway is a great city and it will be the closing night of the festival.
Personally I cant wait.

Love the site'.

EY's favourite newbies to the scene are back with a fabulous new single, fresh sounding analogue synth gem 'Jackson's Last Stand'.





No video as yet but it's coming and we were eager for you to hear this track on EY and crown it Single of The Week.

These Camden boys know how to produce a catchy tune and memorable hooks, this one sending me back to rara skirt school disco time, Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran all mixed with a hint of New Order. The electro pop threesome create infectious tunes and this new track sounds as good as their debut 'Dance the Way I Feel'.

Ou Est have already been a hit around the country in University campuses and the festivals of last year. Even Radio 1 support this band! Perhaps we will be saved from the ever tedious overload of R'n'B and treated to a new respect in the mainstream for the growing diversity of electro in coming years.

Xfm refer to these boys as 'indie electro' crossover and it seems although things have gone quiet for the synthpop girly boots and the like of last year, there could be a new wave of alternative electro about to breakthrough.

Have a listen to this track bursting with so much enthusiasm, you could forgive the band the ever so slightly wonky name and tendency for retrospective facial hair.

These boys sing about love, fun and peace and manage it in the spirit of the more sombre influences of electro yesteryear greats, keeping it modern, edgy and upbeat.

The debut album 'The Golden Years' is out August 16th, the eagerly anticipated release of the Summer here within the buzz of so many great new electro acts popping up this year.

Further Swimming Pool reading:
Digital Spy interview
Londonist.com interview
City Life

Crystal Alice!

EY had to mention the wonderfully bonkers Crystal Castles appearance on Jools for anyone that missed it.







It seems with the absence of a video for the first release 'Celestica', this will be one of the few treats to see the lovely Alice Glass lost in her own little world, bouncing about in her trademark unpredictable way.

She may have holes in her tights, almost fall off a speaker and fluff her lines but this is part of the uniquely beautiful and charming front woman's appeal.

A mesmerising performance by them despite the small screen which is never the best way to see bands...fingers crossed for some festival appearances this summer.

Yazoo live album!





EY rarely get's this excited by live albums (we are still scarred by the Simple Monds one back in 1987), but Mute Records have now confirmed that Yazoo's 2008 Reconnected Tour will be released as a double CD set along with a special limited edtion CD package.


No details yet of the tracklistings (one hopes that it includes every track performed) or where it was recorded but the release date is September 27th and we quite like the CD artwork opposite.

Coming up next - Nic Toupee reports back on synth legend John Foxx live at The Roundhouse.

EY is delighted to confirm that The Human League will be touring the UK in 2010 after a two year break that followed the critically acclaimed Steel City tour of 2008.

The Mighty League have booked 16 venues across the UK to promote the forthcoming album that will be released on the Wall of Sound label.



This will be the first national tour since 2001 to feature new League material along with many of the iconic hits and it all begins at Norwich on Monday 29th November with doors opening at 7.30pm.





Key dates include Sheffield on Wednesday 1st December and London's Royal Festival Hall on Friday 10th before the final performance De Montfort Hall in Leicester on Saturday 18th December.

Tickets for all the dates go on sale from 9am tomorrow and will be available directly from the venues and usual ticket agencies.


The confirmed dates are as follows:


November:

Mon 29  Norwich, UEA

Tue 30  Halifax, Victoria Theatre

December:

Wed 1  Sheffield, City Hall

Fri 3  Bristol, Colston Hall

Sat 4  Wolverhampton, Civic Hall

Sun 5  St Albans, Alban Arena

Mon 6  Folkestone, Leas Cliff Hall

Tue 7  Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall

Thu 9  Stoke, Victoria Hall

Fri 10  London, Royal Festival Hall

Sat 11  Cambridge, Corn Exchange

Mon 13  Gateshead, The Sage

Tue 14  Edinburgh, Picture House

Wed 15  Manchester, Academy

Fri 17  Lincoln, The Engine Shed

Sat 18  Leicester, De Montfort Hall

The Human League live images © Richard Price 2008


Related link:

The Human League Secrets Forum

Coming up next: EY has been invited along to John Foxx's show at the Roundhouse on Saturday - a show that will be 100% pure analogue featuring banks of ancient and buzzing synths. Our full report will be online soon...




In the meantime, turn up those speakers and have a look at this video from Manchunian band May68 and their stupendously catchy single 'My Ways'. Thankfully more in the pop mould of fellow Mancs Hurts than Delphic, 'My Ways' is a sure fire EY stomper and the best new thing we've heard since Ou Est Le Swimming Pool....

This NME breakthrough act sound a bit like a frenzied collision between Heaven 17 and classic Bronski Beat with lots and lots of sequenced disco synths and great boy/girl vocal interaction (something we love here at EY HQ).

Our fave bit is the vocal delivery of 'can't sleep... for the sound of my heartbeat' during a most heavenly chorus - a lovely climax to this track too with some crispy synthy sounds.

This promising new band are playing with Heaven 17 at this year's Manchester Pride on August 29th and you can find out more and keep an eye on them via myspace.

We suspect that May68 will be gracing the purple pages of EY again in the not too distant future...

(With additional thanks to Babooshka)

After the fab two part interview with Glenn Gregory, it's time to make a foray to the dark side at EY. Put the sharp suits and early 80's politics to one side and check out the boy in make up IAMX.


It's all 'me, me, me' and passion blurring the traditional view of the girls in electro bringing in the emotion, the boys singing about robots...not anymore it seems!

'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction' is full of melancholic melodies fused with harder electro pop sounds.


Already a hit in Europe and the US, you can hear some of Chris Corner's previous band Sneaker Pimps in this album. For me, there's also a big dose of Depeche Mode's 'Sounds of the Universe' an album again which seemed more of a hit in mainland Europe but I loved it and it seems Mode fans here are finally coming round to it.

'Nature of Inviting' kicks of this electro rock trip hop blah blah treat with spiky electro, pulsating drums and angst ridden lyrics.

This moves nicely into the title track, 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction', a tinkly haunting intro that brings in a mix of fine piano and synths to produce my favourite track on the album.

'Tear Garden' starts with some 'Adam Ant-esque' drumming and is in keeping with the 80's new romantic outlandish theatre; Chris is always the electro cabaret entertainer. For the next track 'My Secret Friend', you might want to put your fingers in your ears for the intro but be patient as it does pick up in a moody, pretentious sixth former kind of way.

'An I for an I' is angry Mode and very 'Corrupt' in places, possibly the hardest track on the album with unrelenting electronic noise. 'I am Terrified' already featured on EY with the Alec Empire remix, is emo-electro fab, loneliness, drinking, lack of trust; you would think it would be pretentious but Chris pulls if off brilliantly in his trademark glam noir way.


'Think of England' is the now Berlin based Chris's internal struggle with his homeland, all very sincere but one of the weaker tracks on the album.

'The Stupid, The Proud' is enchanting if dangerously acoustic for some at EY...nevertheless a great track full of anger at organised religion and another fave for me. The album starts to dip a bit at this point 'You Can Be Happy' makes me want to slap him hard and tell him to 'pull himself together' despite the optimistic title.


The marching beat and catchiness of 'The Great Shipwreck of Life' picks it up again and leads into final track 'Running' ending this album in a dark and beautiful way.

The eccentric cabaret of IAMX has produced an album covering insecurity, loneliness, anger and even a hint of optimism with the occasional self indulgence.


IAMX seem to have more creative focus than in previous incarnations and this shows with 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction'.

The UK release includes bonus album 'Dogmatic Infidel Comedown OK' and features remixes by the likes of Alec Empire, Terence Fixmer and Combichrist.

8/10

Must Listens:

Nature of Inviting

Kingdom of Welcome Addiction

An I for an I


Related links:

IAMX @ Myspace
Buy 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction' from Musicnonstop

EY likes to keep on top of what's new and different in the wider electro scene, so moving on from the dark electro, here's some mesmerising summery tribal beats to check out too.

Introducing....Visions of Trees

Definitely a new band to keep an eye on fusing synth and percussion to create blissful tribal electronica are Visions of Trees, Joni Juden and Sara Atalar.

Curiously tagged 'psych r'n'b' on their myspace, this pulsating ambient music is reminiscent of Nordic electro, their tracks sounding somewhere between The Knife, Air France and the mysterious JJ.

Already showing the potential for some experimental mask wearing, 'arty' sounds and visuals, the duo have been working on their unique soundscapes since coming together in London 2009. Sara's deep and reverberating vocals range from tribal hypnotic to pop diva- esque proportions within cathartic melodies.







The mix of techno-ambience and tribal beats is soothing enough for a post club come down in the early hours and perfect for any summer evening at a Festival.

Visions of Trees will also be playing at the big electro party Bestival along with EY royalty Heaven 17, wonderfully bonkers Fever Ray and newbies Ou Est Le Swimming Pool.

Must listen:

Cult of Cobra

Solid Rainboes

Related link: Vision of Trees @ myspace

The Human League - live dates for 2010 - updated

News of the first date of what is likely to be a full UK tour for The Mighty Human League in December has just reached EY as we were preparing tonight's update.

The Sheffield Arena website has today posted details of a gig at the Sheffield City Hall on December 1st.







No official confirmation as to whether this is part of the tour for the new Wall of Sound album but another live date at the Royal Festival Hall in London on December 10th has also been announced.
In a newsletter emailed out to its members regarding the London date, the South Bank Center confirmed that the League will be performing 'new material'.

Tickets for this gig go on sale Friday 4th June.

It now seems likely that the first Human League album since 2001's 'Secrets' will be released before November/December 2010.

Update: third date announced

Another date at the Civic Hall on Wolverhampton has just been confirmed for Saturday 4th December 2010.

The following text is taken from the venue's website:


'80's electronic heroes, Human League are back to play the Civic Hall for first time since their sell out show 2 years ago. Expectation is high for their new album due to be released later this year, making it their first new album since 'Secrets', released in 2001'

More details on the venue's website here.

Related links:

The Human League Secrets Forum

In a phone conversation that lasted just over an hour, EY's Nic Toupee spoke to Heaven 17 legend Glenn Gregory.

The iconic analogue front man took time out from studio duties where he was working on backing tracks for the 'Penthouse & Pavement' tour and new Heaven 17 songs.






Read on to find out how the acclaimed Heaven 17 documentary ended up on BBC-2, how Philip Oakey and Martyn Ware were brought together on camera to talk about the demise of League MK1 for the very first time since 1980....plus working with La Roux for 6 Music.



EY: How do you feel about the fact that the BBC was interested in the documentary - how do you feel about that endorsement of your impact?

GG: It's amazing to get it onto BBC 2 and amazing that people were interested in us enough, and trusted us enough, to make that film, because at no point did anyone come into the edit suite and take a look at what we'd done until we'd finished.

Basically they said 'yes we agree to give them two hours of BBC airtime, an hour for the concert and an hour documentary', and that's as much influence as they had, just the timing. 59 minutes, 49 seconds and we did it.

We just gave it to them when we'd finished, and we literally finished it on the Friday night and gave it to them on Sunday or Monday. So that was it.

We'd just finished and said 'thank you there you go'. The trust that was there was amazing, I couldn't believe they were letting us do it.

We could have put any old rubbish out! But of course we didn't. We gave them something that was gorgeous.




There's a piece in The Guardian where they were talking about the 80s season and basically pulled that out as a shining example of what was good about it so far which is amazing.

Because it WAS good, it was genuine, it was honest and told an interesting story without any kind of bravado.

I was just very honest and true...and funny I think, which is good.



I love the fact that it's electronic music. I also like the fact that probably a great big chunk of the BBC-2 watching public didn't know who we were or what it was about but I think it was interesting enough to win them over anyway.
It was very watchable.



EY: It sounds like the documentary contained a revelation in putting together some of the pieces of the past?

GG: It was nice getting Phil and Martyn to actually talk about the split, because obviously it was quite acrimonious and Martyn was upset.
Martyn and Phillip were friends for such a long time. Since they were twelve years old or something, so it's really nice that they've come back together and had a chat.

I'm lobbying hard as a Human League fan to try to get Martyn, Phil and Ian to perform those first two albums live.
I'd love that. I'd pay large amounts of money to see that. At the moment I'm not getting anywhere but every time I see Phil I mention it and say 'look, come on, let's do it'.

EY: Was the documentary the first time Martyn and Phil had talked about the split since it happened?

GG: That was the first time they'd talked about it actually...honestly, definitely. I kept saying to Martyn 'let's phone Phil, and let's see if we can get Phil to come on the documentary' and he said 'Phil won't want to do it, it's not fair to ask him about us' and I said 'but you know he IS us, and we are him'.




It just happened that we were doing a gig in Sheffield on the Friday night for a DJ that had died (it was a charity memorial gig). I said 'email Phil that we're doing this and see if we can get him along' so we did, and we literally just took a little DV cam in our dressing room and he came in and sat down.

EY: How did that feel?

GG: It was great! (laughs), it was quite cathartic. I love the fact that they both say at the end of it 'I still quite like him though'.
It's like, you two are just ridiculous. You've spent the last thirty years wondering about this, and you've just decided who it was.

EY: Had Martyn and Phil seen each other at all since the split 30 years ago?




GG: No they'd really lost those 30 years. They didn't spend any time together. It's a shame, a crazy shame.
They were really good mates, and then they weren't.
They were in a band together and they toured together and they fought together and they are two very like minded people.

Sometimes when you've got two strong willed friends, you go further than you would if they were your enemy because you feel you know them so well.

EY: In some ways the documentary did more than you expected from it then?


GG: Absolutely. It definitely did more than we expected. Iinitially, we just decided to make it for ourselves to diarise the process of rebuilding 'Penthouse and Pavement' from the point where we were going to play it live.

As we started filming, things started to evolve and we realised that there was quite a nice story here, quite a personal story, and it would be interesting so we could perhaps maybe get it on the TV.
.
We were going to make it for Sky Arts, and then BBC2 coincidentally were doing the 80s season and contacted us because they'd heard about it and said 'we really want for your film to be on'.

At first we said we couldn't do it because we would just have two weeks to edit it. James was in LA at the time, and I said 'I don't think we can do it in two weeks, we haven't even started looking at the footage', but then you kind of push yourself.

That means, ok...you have to get two edit suites, you have to get someone to do the concert and someone else to edit the documentary.

So we worked day and night on it, to be honest, and it was a labour of love. We were there day and night and then we did the extra day's filming where we got people coming to talk and then we had to get Bob. Suddenly just out this mist, this forest of information and film footage, the lines started to appear and a path came through and that was where we were going.

I think it worked out really nicely.

EY: And how did you feel about the Midge Ure segment at the end?




GG: That was joyous wasn't it? What happened was I phoned Midge when I was trying to get everyone together to come and talk, and I said 'Midge can you come and talk on Wednesday?' and he said 'I can't, I'm in Germany gigging'.

So I said 'OK, have you got a camera, can you film yourself, just say something like Penthouse and Pavement is the best album in the world', just joking around.


So he uploaded what he filmed and I downloaded it and watched it and I just thought it was fantastic, it was hilarious!

So I sent it into the studio and showed the guys and everyone just loved it, so we decided not to put it in the show but just to have exactly what he said, more or less, at the end.

EY: How did pairing up with La Roux come about?

GG: I heard on the radio, I think it was the Steve Lamacq show. Elly had been talking about a Heaven 17 album and talking about 'And That's No Lie' being one of her favourite tracks.
I think she actually played ' And That's No Lie' on the Steve Lamacq show.

I liked her music anyway before that. I'd been listening to it a bit, so I went and found her on Myspace and I left a message saying 'thanks for playing the Heaven 17 track on Steve Lamacq, it was really nice of you to say those nice things, love Glenn'.

She got back about or four days later saying 'Oh my god I can't believe you contacted me, it's amazing oooh'.



So I guess somebody else from BBC 6 must have have realised that there might be a collaboration there, and they had just started doing one collaboration show with Little Boots and Gary Numan previously and they thought be a good idea to put us together.


So after a few false starts where we couldn't do it because Elly was in America touring, and too tired because she did so much touring she couldn't do anything else. Eventually we got together and worked on the programme at the Maida Vale studios of the BBC.






It was really good, honestly, genuinely, because it was a real collaboration.
We vaguely knew what songs we were going to do live and showed Elly 'Temptation' or 'Penthouse and Pavement' or whatever, but we weren't sure.




I'd learned a couple of La Roux songs, just because we weren't sure what we were going to do, so when we got into the studio there was a real genuine process. We spent a day's rehearsal and a half day rehearsal and then we filmed in the evening, so it really was a question of working out who was going to do what, playing, and we got on so well.

Ben Langmaid who writes with Elly and is in the band although you don't see him very often, was there and we were working all the parts out together.
It just went very, very well.

I think Elly is quite hypnotic actually, she's a real kind of charismatic person and performer. We were in rehearsals, we were laughing and we were having a nice time and it was good, and suddenly when the cameras were on and when we were doing it for real, it was like she had been plugged in.


We got on very well, then I did a song at the Bridge Aftershow party with Elly on stage and that was great. I'd love to work with them again and it would be great to work more with them in the future.

There's talk of maybe releasing the 'Temptation' thing as a War Child charity record, and that still may happen but we haven't got around to it yet, mainly because Elly is spending so much time touring away in America.

We were filming for the Heaven 17 documentary and Elly and Ben came up where we were filming in my neck of the woods in Primrose Hill. My little boy - who is seven years old is an enormous La Roux fan.
We'd just finished filming and I said 'I have to pick my little boy up from school but who wants to come with me?'

Elly was all dressed up and had her hat on and her hair up and we went to pick him up. He came out and I stood there in the school yard with Elly from La Roux and he couldn't speak, he was absolutely speechless. I said 'say hello' and he said 'hello Elly' (Glenn puts on a high quavering voice). It was so sweet.

EY: How did you choose Temptation for the collaboration? The female part on that is pretty challenging!

EY: Her voice is so different from the original...

EY: How do you feel about the current synthpop revival in the last couple of years?

GG: I think progressively it gets more difficult to be original, because there are only a certain amount of notes and there are only a certain amount of melodies, and they've pretty much all been used.

I think, for instance when we started and synthesisers were brand new, and they'd just come out. They were monophonic and they were rubbish, but they were making some fantastic noises.
That was brand new because no one had done it before, there hasn't been a synthesiser before so that's why that was new.

EY: Do you feel it's easier for artists who were there at the start to write original work than people who have just started?




GG: That's a good question.
I think it's harder for us because you know how you did it before and you want to try to do it a different way to make it more interesting for you, but then in the end I always come back and think 'let's do it the way we did it, it sounds really good' (laughs).




People who are doing it these days, sometimes they sound the same and sometimes they don't know what they're doing but generally there are bands out there that have just picked up their equipment and don't listen to us or Human League or Gary Numan or Erasure or Kraftwerk or Can. they just kind of find their own way.

EY: Who have you listened to, making electronic music, that you've been impressed by their difference or innovation?


GG: Again it's difficult, once you've used those things. I don't dislike anything actually, I really like electronic music, the more obscure electronic stuff that is more like the kind of early Human League. It's quite dark, I like that.

EY: Why do you think the 80s are big again?

GG: It's like anything. It's cyclical...music, fashion...

To be honest this thing about the 80s started four or five years ago and first off it was pretty much just fashion based and it was about clothes, shoulder pads and rah rah skirts, and then more music started coming through and once that started happening it becomes a more serious movement.



Because the time has been before, you start looking back at the music made at that time. My boy, who is seven, he listens to things , and Martyn has two kids I think, 12 and 14, and they listen to music with no concept of when it was made.

These days I don't get a song out of my record collection with a dog-eared cover that looks like it's from 1983, and say 'do you remember, look at this' and put on a scratchy record. I just go onto the computer and say 'listen to this, look this is Hot Chip, this is Roxy Music, this is the Cure' and they're all just mixed and it doesn't matter.

I think the younger generation listen to music in a different way than when we...certainly than I used to.

EY: Do you think that's beneficial for you as an artist?

EY: What do you see as the future of Heaven 17?

GG: I suppose really what Martyn wants to do is to work out if we can do 'The Luxury Gap' live. It's a much bigger challenge because there were a lot of instruments.

There's an orchestra on there, there's a lot of brass on there, and so you know that is a challenge. He's very gung-ho and sees no problems, whereas I look at it and think; 'Jesus Christ! There's a lot of work!'

This album was just a purely electronic album, with bass and guitar, and quite a simple album, whereas 'The Luxury Gap' is much more complicated than this one.



This tour took almost a year to get together. But I think we'll take a look at that, and also we'll take a view on doing other things whether it be with other people, collaborating, or just purely a Heaven 17 thing.

EY: Do you have anything you'd like to say to Heaven 17 fans on the Electronically Yours site?

Heaven 17 will be performing Penthouse and Pavement live across the UK in November 2010. Tickets are available through www.seetickets.com . 

Edinburgh HMV Picture House (Nov 22), Glasgow O2 ABC (Nov 23), Manchester Ritz (Nov 25), Birmingham HMV Institute (Nov 26), London HMV Forum (Nov 28), Oxford O2 Academy (Nov 29), Brighton Corn Exchange (Nov 30), Bristol O2 Academy (Dec 1)



Ticket Hotline - 08700 603 777

What seemed like a good opportunity to document their preparation for the  upcoming Penthouse and Pavement tour gave Heaven 17 far more than they bargained for in the recent documentary aired on BBC2. 

EY: When you listen back to P & P how do you feel about it as an album, as songs...




GG: I think it's probably the album that I'm most happy with, the one I feel most comfortable listening to. The one I feel most comfortable standing up and saying 'I did that', and I don't think it's so much because it's the first one.
I think it's because it is still raw, and it's produced in the way that we did it, no one else has really got a hand in that.

Pete Walsh was co-producer, but it was more a case of cleaning it up. It wasn't a case of putting more things in, so there was loads of space in each track and each sound is quite individual and raw.



Oddly enough, because we're picking them up to play live, I've gone into each track more deeply than I had done since 1980 when we were making them.

We had to reconstruct them so we could then deconstruct them to play live, because we didn't use the original backing tracks - only the rhythm sounds, but we recreated them all.

So I was listening to those tracks really carefully, much more carefully than I probably ever did at the time, I'm in the studio and I'm thinking 'OK what actually IS that sequencer in 'Let's All Make A Bomb', how does it go?'

Then you listen to it and think 'Jesus! I didn't know it did that!' - because you're just listening to it as a whole track. I've gone back and looked at these tracks really deeply, and I can really say that I love them, they're really good, I feel proud of them. They're funny, they're quirky, they are lyrically astute, they are experimental.

It was something new at the time for us personally, Martyn and Ian coming from the Human League and taking all of that electronic baggage with them and furthering it by saying 'OK, take this' but then let's add some other elements that we liked and were listening to like funk and dance music. Let's put that in there as well.

To be honest, we thought we were writing songs like The Jacksons! We weren't at all, but what came out of that was a kind of good vibe really.


EY: The Jacksons were a major influence?

EY: What is your most satisfying memory of making 'Penthouse & Pavement'?






GG: I think really what always amazes me is how quickly we did it all.
Martyn and Ian had just left the Human League, and I spoke to Martyn four days before, so I packed my bags and went to Sheffield.
Within probably a week and a half, we'd recorded 'Fascist Groove Thang'!

We were in the same studio as the Human League: they were writing 'Dare' and we were writing 'Penthouse and Pavement'!

They were working nights and we were working days - or they were working days and we were working nights.
It was just electric, you could just feel the creativity in that place.




It was fantastic, and that's what I'm most pleased with: just being involved and being there, and just working, twelve, sometimes fourteen hours in the studio, writing and mixing a track, finishing it sometimes within two days from start to finish, and that's it. That's the track you can hear on the album!

I guess that's why I love the tracks so much. They so captured that moment of when we did it , and the excitement, and the anger of Martyn wanting desperately to prove himself right and make sure we were better than the Human League, or better than anybody.

It was a fantastic electric time and because we made it and finished it all so quickly - they are the tracks that you hear, they didn't go anywhere else and get reworked, and that's what I love about it the most.

I think that's why I like that album the most, because it's just so absolutely 'of that time' for me, which was such a fucking brilliant time.

EY: Is there anything you wish you could have changed about the album, and have you changed anything for the live show?

GG

EY: What are its greatest innovations?

GG: I think lyrically it was quite important that we reflected the times, and especially the times in Sheffield and the things that were going on. Sheffield was being taken apart brick by brick by the Tory Government and Margaret Thatcher at the time.

I think that influenced quite a lot of our tracks. We managed to put dance music and politicised lyrics together in such a way that didn't harm each other, and they could sit quite happily together.
It was great dance music but it was also great music to have a conversation - or an argument about, lyrically.

That's probably the best thing about it, really.

EY: Did you have a lot of fans or media question your lyrics?

GG: Constantly! That's all we talked about for years (laughs).

The BBC banned 'Fascist Groove Thang' and that was quite a body blow, because the press and everybody loved it.

It was hailed as such a fantastic breakthrough track and that it was what people had been waiting for.
All the reviews in the papers were fantastic, and then suddenly the BBC weren't playing it and it was like, oh, what a kick in the teeth!





But, you know, it still remained a great track and people still talk about it today. In fact, it's just as relevant today, in fact more relevant that it has been for a while with the current political situation here, so our lyrics are always important.

EY: The BEF, whilst being a criticism of the music business, looked like a business.
How did you feel about the music business at the time, and how do you feel about it now?

EY: On the documentary, both Martyn and Phil agreed that the record company did facilitate it?





GG: Yes, exactly, but at that time we didn't know for sure - but we've now since gotten to the bottom of it.

The BEF's almost like an expose of the music business which is supposed to be all love and peace and Woodstock: it's the suits, money and backstabbing - and that's kind of the business side of it.




The irony of that went into the cover of 'Penthouse and Pavement'.

Unfortunately what happened was that at the same point, the 'yuppieness' of England was taking over, and the money grabbing banking world almost took it as a kind of icon and became the 'Penthouse and Pavement' sleeve with the suits and pony tails.

People have said to us in the past 'Yeah, I love your album, 'Let's All Make A Bomb', yeah let's make loads of money, yeah come on'.
That's not actually what we meant! But, you know, that's the problem with irony sometimes, people don't get it.

It was supposed to be duplicitous, really, but we hoped people would see the fact that it was ironic and that that's not really how we were, we were trying to point something out.



EY: Heaven 17 are currently free in terms of obligations to a record company?


GG: We're completely free, and have no ties to any large business organisations.If we were going to put something out, we'd make sure that we didn't get into bed with such a large organisation, and that we'd try to retain some of our own destiny.



EY: Have you thought of starting your own label again?


GG: It's just such an enormous task. I've got friends who do these sorts of things, and it's just a really big uphill struggle. It's so difficult.
The music business is very messy at the moment. Even the big companies are trying to claw money back because they're not making any.
Huge business are tottering on the edge of extinction - which would probably be a good thing because it would let a wave of smaller labels come to the fore, but at the moment it's teetering, it's about to implode on us.




EY: With Penthouse and Pavement, were you trying to make it as different from the Human League as possible to reject the past?

GG: I don't think we tried to reject or get rid of anything, what we did was add. We wanted it to be different, not to differ from the Human League but to be different from what Martyn was within the Human League.

So we were definitely looking at ways of doing new things...obviously it was going to be different anyway because it had different personel and we had a different dynamic.




I'm a different person to Phil so the whole thing worked in a different way, and musically it just 'happened'.
I don't think we sat down and thought 'we need to differentiate ourselves from the Human League'.
We all knew we wanted to, that was unspoken, and luckily it all just kind of fell together, basically, from 'Fascist Groove Thang'.

In the first five days we'd written lyrics and gotten the backing track together. It was very electronic - totally electronic but a dance track that was 150 bpm, it was exciting!

Then we thought 'what are we going to do in the middle eight?' and Martyn said 'how about we have a bass guitar solo' and we were like, 'wow, we don't even know any bass guitar players!'.

We found John (Wilson) and he came in and played guitar and the bass, and he kind of looked at us and we kind of looked at each other and thought 'fuck, we've done it!'

That's the hybrid, that's the point: within the first week we'd found that change, we'd unlocked that door to how Heaven 17 would be different.


EY: It was the bass guitar?

GG: It was the bass guitar! Really it was, I don't mean that's all it was, but that was the key.

EY: How was it using the same studio as the Human League? Were things moved around the next time you went in?


GG: Oh constantly. We'd find bits of things that they did that they left behind and thought ' ooh what's that?'. I think we'd heard a bit of 'Sound of the Crowd' on something they'd left and thought 'yeah I like that, that's quite good'.

All it did was to inspire you to move forward and to make something better. I think Phil has admitted that he heard stuff as well, he liked 'Fascist Groove Thang'. At some points Phil was sleeping in the bloody room above in this very derelict building, of which there were really only two rooms that you could go in out of a 6 floor building.

It gets back to what I was saying, it was SO exciting and it pushed both bands on so much. It was such a creative melting pot, of not only ideas but anger as well, and we just wanted to be pushing forward.

EY: Are you using the original synthesisers on stage for the Penthouse and Pavement anniversary shows? And what are you using now in your own studios?







GG: For Penthouse and Pavement live we did use a lot of the original synthesisers on stage.

Certainly all the drum sounds that Joel plays on the electronic drum kit are the same sounds, not from tape but they're Linn drum samples.







We sampled the Linn drums, we've got the right bass drum and literally went through the sounds with a sonic fine toothed comb trying to get it to sound as much as we could like the real sounds.
It took a long time and a lot of work from Joel to play all of those parts.

A lot of the synth sounds are running off the system 100 - the original sequencer. I think Martyn has got my JP4 in there, and some other stuff on stage. He was using a modern Roland synth, I've forgotten which one it was, a kind of big old thing which, again, you can put samples into - which he did.

So even though it is a modern synth, he's playing old sounds. The bass is the bass, the drums are the drums, the guitar is the guitar...honestly, if we could have done it then, it would have sounded like this, it's pretty much the same.

EY: Any particular reason?

EY: Do you ever feel regret that you didn't tour this album when it came out?

GG: It's hard to say, really, because we really had a great time, and just talking on a personal front I don't think we could have had much more fun. We really, thoroughly, had a good time.
They were modern times in the way that MTV had just started that year, and videos were being made all over the place and there were millions of TV shows all around the world to go and do.




We were always in America doing TV shows, we were constantly in Italy, we were in Germany probably more than we were in England, Spain; it was really good fun.

I think, had we gone out and toured, it might well have altered that dynamic in a detrimental way. On a personal level, I would quite like to have gone out there as a front man and strutted my stuff when I was 21 years old, just for a showing off thing.

I knew I could do it, and so on a just purely personal level I would like perhaps to have done it, but that's that's without taking anyone else into consideration.

So I think all in all I wouldn't have changed anything, I'd have left it as it was.

I love it now! I'm getting that joy of running around on stage and being a kind of pop star now, so everything comes to he who waits.



EY: What is happening with the new edition of Penthouse and Pavement? What extras are there going to be with it?


GG: We're still talking about that, really. What we might do is put some of the early BEF stuff on there, like Music for Listening To which has never really properly been mastered, some real rarities, and we might put some stuff on from the DVD.
There's so much stuff that has not been seen, we shot tonnes of stuff, so there'll be lots of little DVD extras.

We're talking about putting a photo gallery on there, because I found so many archived shots of the Human League, which featured in the League section of the documentary.
They're my shots that I took of the Human League back in 1978, which I just had as negatives in the back of a drawer somewhere.
Our director James Strong said we need some shots of the Human League for this section and I said I've got some negatives that have never seen the light of day.

It was really bizarre! I took them in to the processors and as I as explaining to the girl that I wanted 400 DPI and wanted .tiff not .jpeg etc and as I was talking, 'Being Boiled' came on the radio.
I was like, 'that is spooky!''. She said 'what, what?' and I said 'these negs are of that band, at that time'. It was really weird, it all coming together.

So I've got all those shots, so I might put extras like that on there, just some really personal stuff.




EY: Was anything recorded in the Penthouse and Pavement sessions that never made it to the album?

GG

(Editing and presention by Orac to the 2006 remastered 'Penthouse & Pavement')

Heaven 17 will be performing Penthouse and Pavement live across the UK in November 2010.  Tickets are available through www.seetickets.com . 

Edinburgh HMV Picture House (Nov 22), Glasgow O2 ABC (Nov 23), Manchester Ritz (Nov 25), Birmingham HMV Institute (Nov 26), London HMV Forum (Nov 28), Oxford O2 Academy (Nov 29), Brighton Corn Exchange (Nov 30), Bristol O2 Academy (Dec 1)



Ticket Hotline - 08700 603 777

Heaven 17 are set to warm up for the forthcoming Penthouse & Pavement tour with an exclusive live session for Absolute Radio which is being recorded tonight for broadcast in early June.

Two 'Penthouse' tracks plus 'Temptation' will air on Geoff Lloyd Show between 7-8pm on Thursday June 10th together with an interview with the Sheffield innovators.


(H17 live at Magma - image © Tracey Welch)


Electro lovers across the globe will be able to listen in by book marking this link where it will also be made available as a podcast.



Just a few days later, Glenn Gregory will be popping into the 6 Music studio for a chat with Liz Kershaw on Saturday 12th of June about the 30th anniversary tour of 'Penthouse & Pavement. The entire show will be available on the BBC iPlayer shortly afterwards for 7 days.

Since the BBC announced daft plans to close 6 Music following the cost cutting threats of the (bloody nasty) Tory Party, 6 Music has seen its audience increase by 50% and recently won two Sony Radio awards for sheer utter brilliance.
6 Music Sony winners included that other Sheffield genius Jarvis Cocker who accepted his award with these wise words; '6 Music isn't going to change the world, it just wants to make it a bit nicer'.

Tickets for Heaven 17's '30th Anniversary Penthouse & Pavement Tour' are selling out fast following BBC-2's recent H17 coverage. Last Sunday's 'Making of Penthouse & Pavement' documentary should have come with a 'heath warning' according to Deborah Oor of The Guardian who went on to say that she found it 'so absorbing'.
Deborah's review can be reached here and details of the 'Penthouse' tour and ticket hotline can be found below:





Edinburgh HMV Picture House (Nov 22), Glasgow O2 ABC (Nov 23), Manchester Ritz (Nov 25), Birmingham HMV Institute (Nov 26), London HMV Forum (Nov 28), Oxford O2 Academy (Nov 29), Brighton Corn Exchange (Nov 30), Bristol O2 Academy (Dec 1)

Ticket Hotline - 08700 603 777
www.seetickets.com

More incoming Heaven 17 brilliance...





(With thanks to Peter Noble)

It's the dark, cold and wet winter of 1979. John Foxx has split from his band Ultravox after their radical and astonishing 'Systems of Romance' album.



Ultravox, Gary Numan and the Human League had broken all rock barriers and approached the bleak late 70s with new ideas about music, replacing rebellious bluster and righteous anger with cold clinicism, new technology and an admission of the alienation of modern life.






John Foxx - the stage name of academic and musicial Dennis Leigh - refines these ideas, these dreams and visions, into the minimal synth classic that is the 'Metamatic' album, engineered by none other than the-then-little-known Gareth Jones.
When released, it falls on the ears of the post-punk music scene like the Man Who Fell To Earth - alien, cold, synthetic.

Using an entirely analogue set up he composes an album influenced by film, art and philosophy which makes a small dent in the charts in 1980 and then fades away.

With the recent revival of 80s synthpop, 'Metamatic' has finally been given the credit and respect it deserves, with new fans loving the synthetic timelessness of songs like 'Metal Beat', 'No-one's Driving' and his most famous solo track 'Underpass'.



Now reaching the 30th anniversary of its release, Foxx released a new compilation 'Metatronic' in the run up to his upcoming show at the Roundhouse.
'Metatronic' focuses on the darker, electro material from his 30 year solo career, including the new mix of 'Underpass' by Factory legend Mark Reeder and a DVD featuring early promo videos.

John Foxx will be performing songs from 'Systems of Romance', 'Metamatic' and new material, using all of the original analogue synths, at the Short Circuit Festival being held at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden on the 5th June 2010.


Accompanying him will be Benge, whose astonishing analogue studio was made famous in the Synth Britannia documentary of last year, with DJ sets from Gary Numan and his production partner Ade Fenton, plus Jori Hulkonnen and many more guests.

Tickets are available from www.roundhouse.co.uk

Nic Toupee spoke with John Foxx about the upcoming Roundhouse concert, and Metamatic's 30 year anniversary.

EY: Please tell us about the Short Circuit festival: how did it eventuate that you are organising a festival?

JF: My manager Steve and I had known the organizer of the festival, in another context - (working in Soho, commissioning film music). During our first conversation we discovered he was a genuine electronic music enthusiastic and very knowledgable.

When he got things going at The Roundhouse, we found he was also very effective - went along to the Holger Czukay and BBC Radiophonic Orchestra events and it was clear The Roundhouse is rapidly becoming London's most linformed venue, and I was pleased to be part of the adventure.

EY: What is your curatorial rationale behind the Roundhouse programme?

JF: Two things - powerful memories of attending the 14 hour Technicolour Dream at Alexander Palace, late 1960's - it changed everything.

The truly fascinating thing is how previously unrelated strands of culture became a unified living entity, simply by placing them together in the same location for a few hours. The other element is - I'm enjoying this recent recognition of British Electronic Music as a genre. It really is a powerful a force, still capable of at least as much mutation as any other genre - and more than most.

EY: Can you tell us a little about the artists you have chosen and their contribution to the festival?

JF: Iain Sinclair - a crucial, pivotal writer - I think he's represents a view as valuable as Ballard's. He has precipitated a new sort of writing about London that is enabling a very healthy, fertile and imaginative literature to emerge in Britain - an essential blast of oxygen after a couple of decades of suffocation.

Robin Simon - guitar is the first popular electronic instrument. He was the first to realise it as an electronic abstraction by incorporating all those rogue elements of echo and distortion to mutate it into a unified, shapeshifting, organic entity. Of course, everyone grabbed the concept and ran off with it. Rob's intervention is so fundamental and became so universal that it's now simply assumed guitar sounds like that. Sure it does - but only after Rob Simon.

Benge - Owner of a thousand synths - Long ago converted himself into pure analogue signal to communicates empathically with active cells across the globe from a vast underground complex in Shoreditch. Will shortly emerge as a new world power.

Ghost Box - natural successors to the Mute/ Warp genetic heritage of entrancing, involving, eccentric, finger-on-the-button, startling, new, risk-taking, life-worth-living, culture-central enablers and disseminators.

EY: Please tell us more about your performance at this event

JF: We plan to play episodes - Metamatic - Rob Simon and Systems of Romance, Louis Gordon - and the new songs recorded with Benge for the John Foxx & The Maths project. And a new Paul Daley track called 'Walk through the Walls'.

EY: Gary Numan has cited you as an influence a number of tiimes, and is involved with Short Circuit. What are your thoughts about Gary's creative work?

JF: Gary was the raw kid who arrived at the right time.
Equipped with nothing more than nerve and instinct, he very coolly assessed that messy stuff everyone had been painfully hacking out, then instantly distilled it into the perfect fuel for his new car.

Left everyone looking a bit clumsy when he drove off. Maximum accelleration. You had to laugh.

EY: In his early work he drew upon a number of similar themes to those running through early Ultravox and your solo work. Did you gain anything from hearing these tales told from his perspective?

JF: Absolutely - he did all the sorting. Beautifully ruthless.When I heard Gary I realized how much junk we all needed to jettison.

EY: Do you believe he brought anything to the concept of a mechanical society that you had not? If so, what?

JF: Well, that wasn't my area - I was simply trying to talk about the present - what I felt was the unrecognized present. I think Gary was using territory closer to Bladerunner and some of that 'where we will soon find ourselves' sort of angle. Although there are still aspects of the present in there, too.
His own intermittent sense of isolation, for instance. He's startlingly good at converting all that into some monolithic image delivered on one of those angular synth riffs.

EY: What are your thoughts on the current eighties revivalist sentiment?

JF: I guess the reason why a particular generation chooses to repurpose a particular moment from the past is always worth examining. That's a vital sort of cultural orientation exercise and needs to be done constantly. And the meaning of what gets chosen will always be changed because of the new context.

At the other end of the spectrum there's a danger of too many old farts getting together again to cash in on a new generation's interest.

EY: What do you see to be the merit behind celebrating the 30th anniversary of Metamatic?

JF: It took a long time for a general awareness of that record to emerge. At first it was seen as some wierd annexe - away from the mainstream.

Over the years it moved closer, until it eventually became a part of the mainstream. Or more accurately, the mainstream moved toward it.
No one was more surprised than me.
When that sort of thing occurs, you've got to be quietly pleased.
That really is well worth celebrating.

EY: Can this album be compared to your contemporary work?

JF: Well, the themes are there. I'm still basically concerned with a man, a woman, and a city.

EY: What was the working methodology for the production of Metamatic, both lyrically and sonically?

JF: First gather a list of titles - which are really shorthand themes. Then you have to establish a wee magnetic field - in this way. You switch on the drum machine and find a jerky old pattern that the rhythm of the words can adhere to in some way. Then you switch on the synth and find a three or four note melody that seems to have some appropriate resonance with the title.

This is the main theme - I always see it as a sort of mysterious cinematic intro.

If all the foregoing meshes well enough, it will exert a magnetic attraction for other phrases - so, gradually you accumulate the nucleus of a song. Then you can begin to arrange it all.

Once you establish a main theme, the whole thing runs like a movie. In come the characters, they interact in some way and something is thereby revealed which is unexpected and rewarding and you hope has some universal emotional resonance.

Then circumstances are resolved - or not, and we go out on the main theme again. If you do this well enough, you now have a small universe with its own internal logic that you can adjust delicately over the rest of your life.

EY: What are you working on musically at the moment?

JF: A collection of analogue electronic songs with Benge in his studio. Some interconnected pieces with Steve D'Agostino and the Smoke Fairies, Piano pieces with Harold Budd and Rubin Garcia, a set of very simple piano pieces of my own.
Beginning to gather some stuff to work on with Robin Simon and separate notional beginnings with Robin Guthrie.
Plenty of others I'd still like to be getting on with as well.

EY: What is your current studio set up?

JF: At Benge's, it's all analogue - synths, equipment and tape. Mine is a computer with analogue and digital synths Arp, Moog, Roland, CR78 etc - and a grand piano.
A nice old Zimmerman.

EY: What instruments do you currently favour when writing music and why?


JF: An old Roland vocoder with strings and voices, and the CR78 drum machine. I can develop songs fairly easily as soon as I hear these sounds - something to do with the texture of the synth over those gently deranged rhythms from the CR78.
You enter that little world and begin to build. I also play a lot of piano at home. My favourite instrument.

EY: Have you ever invented or modified your own synthesiser?

JF: Only by dropping it downstairs.

EY: What currently inspires you?

JF: Writers including Iain Sinclair and Kazuo Ishiguro - and sometimes Paul Auster. Ghost Box, Adam Curtis, Punchdrunk Theatre, Katie Mitchell, Most of the old inspirations are all still active - Erik Satie, Harold Budd, Turner, Leonardo, Resnais, Cheever, Atget, Berenice Abbott, Various architects, Certain periods of German music, a couple of actors, singers and comedians.

Also at the moment I find I'm reading a lot of obituaries. Not morbidly - just the opposite, that potted history of a life can be completely inspiring when you learn what people did, where they came from, their particular fun and pleasures, their wilderness years, and the courage they gathered to carry on.

EY: Do you associate or maintain communication with any or many of your colleagues in popular music from the eighties? (aside from Gary Numan)?

JF: Quite a few - It's all very episodic though, because we all occupy separate universes. Or we'd like to think so.

EY: How do you feel about the Human League?

JF: I've always liked the League - both incarnations and all members. They truly are a bright lot. Phil and Jarvis Cocker seem to occupy a very similar spot somehow.
That nice Sheffield dry wit -it's a very particular thing and it makes me feel good every time I experience it.

You also get this from Richard Hawley and a few others.

I grew up with several musicians around greater Manchester, and it was that same completely genuine artistic vision they carried too - serous without being earnest and carried very lightly - the lightness somehow indicating its true weight.

I guess everyone was busy defining and developing their particular vision and approach. All different, yet so many shared concerns - City life, post industrial 'where to now'ness, Architecture and politics unexpectedly expressed through mucking about with synths and stories and people - New instruments and what they mean, where you stood in relation to punk and other forms - dance, classical, electro, pure pop, etc and what they all meant in relation to the bigger picture. Discuss. 15000 words.

EY: Your blog describes John Foxx in third person. Do you still consider that a fixed persona separate from your personality?

JF: Got to, otherwise involuntary sedation might become necessary.

EY: How do you feel about performing live these days - you have expressed distaste for it in the past but in recent years seem to have been touring a lot.

JF: A few moments of anaesthetized transcendence supported by years of tedious transportation. Occasionally you get to escape and walk around some city unnoticed - bliss. Forgetting where you are is a wonderful thing and has given me many songs, but the entire process is ultimately painful - like having your skin scraped off by a lot of nice, friendly people.

EY: What are your thoughts on social media (like Facebook and Twitter) and your relationship with it as an artist?

JF: Never like the feeling of being observed, but I understand how all this has evolved and appears useful and secure - and therefore desirable.

Even twitter now follows anyone with a vaguely public persona. Imagine a 'Killed by Twitter' headline. As with all new media it's the convergences that contain the real power and threat...

Imagine surveillance using twitter sources combined with, say street cameras using face, voice and gait recognition software - you could watch and track anyone permanently and automatically. Analyse their routines and you could usefully predict where they would likely be at any given time.

And those are only a few of the possible lethal combinations - any number of others sat nav tracking mobile phones, ingested microchip sensors, profiling gathered from nanochip woven-in clothing and footwear.
Architecturally sited DNA scanners and recorders, etc.

Then there's the whole other problem and fun of moving imagery on clothing and buildings, projected and self-luminant. Imagine naked glowclothing - you are dressed, but your clothes carry an athletic porn stars 3D body image. Or a political message. We might arrive at a source of personal income through bearing advertising material. Or a free newscast carried on peoples backs, so we can read it even at rush hour on the tube.

The almost permanent cloud cover over London might constitute a vast projectable screen. A sunrise and a sunset at each end of the sky together with a message from the Prime Minister in between.

All this and much more will get laid out on the table - much of it is being considered as we speak. All of it carries possibilities of pleasure - and its opposites, I guess. Personally, I couldn't possibly subscribe to anything that might curtail the pleasure of carefree wander through a big city.




(EY would like to thank John Foxx, Steve Malins, Mark Reeder & Nic)


Related links & further reading:
The official John Foxx website
John Foxx @ Myspace
BBC News interview with John Foxx
John Foxx youtube channel
Mark Reeder @ Myspace

The complete John Foxx Roundhouse Equipment List

Synthesizers and Sequencers:
ARP Odyssey x 2
ARP Sequencers x 2
Crumar Multiman
EDP Wasp
Korg MonoPoly
Korg 700
Logan String Machine
Moog Mini x 2
Moog Modular plus Sequencers
Moog Opus 3
Roland Modular System 100m x 10 Modules
Roland SH2
Roland SH-101
Roland Juno 60
Sequential Circuits Multitrack

Drum machines:

Amdek Percussion Synthesiser
Boss Dr Rhythm
Linn Drum
Klone Drum
Roland CR78
Roland TR808

Effects & Processors:

Boss Chorus
Boss Flanger
Boss Phaser
Electro Harmonix electric mistress Flanger
Furman Spring Reverb
Ibanez AD80 Analog Delay
Maestro PS-1 Phase Shifter
Mu-tron Phasor
MXR Phase 100
Roland Space echo RE-201

Other Equipment;
Tascam & Revox Analogue Reel to Reel Tape Machines






(Incoming) Heaven 17 info...Specially Fortified Thrill Update
Text: Orac




EY throws some cunning electro questions over to Heaven 17 later this week.

This EY presentation could well be online by Saturday ...providing we're not still devastated by the finale of 'Ashes to Ashes' this Friday and desperately missing Keeley Hawes (whom we would dearly love to see in Dr Who soon).




In the meantime, UK readers can catch up with last night's beautifully shot and rather fabulous Heaven 17 concert on BBC-2 via the iPlayer.





Equally fabulous and quite possibly the finest music documentary ever made, 'Heaven 17: The Story of Penthouse & Pavement' proved to be a very rare delight avoiding the traps of similar BBC-4 shows that were ever so elitist and all a bit too dry over on Beeb 4 last year.

Featuring interviews with Philip Oakey & Bob Last (who both spoke about the demise of League MK1), Stephen Fry, La Roux, Kim Wilde (who came to the interview with her original vinyl copy of 'Penthouse & Pavement'), Mark Jones, Claudia Brucken and Paul Morley (brilliant as always), this was an astonishingly passionate documentary.
Lots of insights from Glenn and Martyn who took a nostalgic tour of Sheffield and old haunts from pre-Heaven 17 days.

You simply have to watch this documentary and readers in the UK can catch it again on the BBC iPlayer via this link.

Orac; 'Electronically Yours - The definitive electroblog that's opening doors all over the world' x

Following the success of two recent live dates in London and Germany, Sheffield sound innovators Heaven 17 have announced a major UK tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of landmark BEF album 'Penthouse & Pavement'.

Martyn Ware & Glenn Gregory will be taking to the stage with a 6-piece band and banks of LED displays that will showcase specially commissioned artwork from renowned UK designers that have each been inspired by the album's various tracks.


H17 will perform their much admired 1981 debut in its entirety and the tour will also include a set featuring some of the band's key hit singles including the decade defining 'Temptation' and our personal fave 'Let Me Go'.

EMI meanwhile are also busy putting together a 'super luxury edition' of 'Penthouse & Pavement' that has sent ripples of analogue excitement throughout EY HQ and this deluxe edition is set for release this autumn.

Dates include:


Edinburgh HMV Picture House (Nov 22)
Glasgow O2 ABC (Nov 23)
Manchester Ritz (Nov 25)
Birmingham HMV Institute (Nov 26)
London HMV Forum (Nov 28)
Oxford O2 Academy (Nov 29),
Brighton Corn Exchange
(Nov 30)
Bristol O2 Academy (Dec 1)

Tickets go on sale Wednesday May 12th at 9am. Ticket Hotline: 08700 603 777.
Book Online: www.seetickets.com.


(With thanks to Noble PR)

EY might have one or two H17 related goodies to give away as the tour draws closer.



Heaven 17 on BBC-2






The official H17 website has today confirmed that BBC-2 will be devoting two hours to the Steel City pioneers in celebration of the 30th anniversary of perennial EY fave 'Penthouse & Pavement'.

Highlights from the live show recorded in Sheffield's Magma Arena on March 6th will be transmitted on Sunday 16th May at 11.30pm (the first time a Heaven 17 gig has ever been
broadcast on terrestrial TV).
'Penthouse & Pavement' is also honoured with a new documentary that interviews all those involved in the making of this legendary electronic album.

'Heaven 17: The Story of Penthouse & Pavement' will be shown on Monday 17th at 11.20pm and program details can be found here.

Both programs will be available on the BBC iPlayer for seven days for those living in the UK.


Related link:

Official Heaven 17 website


Useless EY trivia: Both of these H17 productions for the BBC have been produced and directed by James Strong whose past credits include several David Tennant episodes of 'Dr Who' and the not quite as good 'Torchwood'.

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Crystal Castles have returned with a second album and their uniquely 'messed up' experimental electronica.


They typically jump about with boundless energy from shoegaze to chiptune fused with some hypnotic trance and drugged up beats reminiscent of 90's rave.

The diversity of this band put in the mixer has resulted in something more cohesive, more poppy this time, not unsurprisingly for a second album, but only a little, which if you're a fan of their debut is good news.


Alice Glass and Ethan Kath have retained their identity as a band that don't quite sound like anyone, this album has the impressive Alice screech but some surprisingly soft melodic vocals on a few tracks.

The album kick starts with 'Fainting Spells', lots of distortion and dark beats and plenty of squeal. 'Celestica' contrasts with its layers and melodic club sound. 'Doe Deer' wakes you up with its high energy, an electro crash and the most trashy on the album. 'Baptism' sounds 90's rave and has a touch of 'Vanished' from the debut album hiding in there.

All good so far and then 'Year of Silence' really stands out, reminding me of the vocals of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife in places. This continues in 'Empathy' but with the odd uncomfortable electronic glitch, it wouldn't be Crystal Castles without it.

'Suffocation' is another stand out track and has to be a single, dreamy vocals and poppy if on the darker side.

'Violent Dreams' is chilled out techno and may take a few listens. Patiently waiting for it to kick in, it doesn't and irritates with its unfathomable lyrics.

Ironically, tracks like this often end up being my favourite a couple of months down the line.




'Vietnam' starts with a feeling of 'oh no not again' after the last one but then tinkly synths wake you up to another goody on the album.

'Birds' made me want to cut my ears off but then there is always one on an album. On second listen, it was easier but maybe not one for the headphones due to abrasive beep throughout. With the curiously titled 'Pap Smear' there is a return to a sparkly pop synth sound and every now and then some strange noises rudely interrupt, definitely one to ask the band what the idea behind this was.

'Not in Love' has a clubby feel with vocals that sound like they were recorded under water or six feet under, it works though.

'Intimate' sounds to me like a late night festival track, brilliance that leads to the finale 'I am made of Chalk' the worst hangover music ever and hopefully not how you feel after listening to the album.




Crystal Castles have returned with some 'instant' pop, some characteristic screeching, some melodic and atmospheric moodiness, club sounds and festival feel electronica.

A great release from them after a few mediocre comebacks from other electro acts this year.

Best tracks: Year of Silence, Celestica and Suffocation


Babooshka's EY Rating: 9/10

Crystal Castles @ Myspace

Tying Tiffany - 'Peoples Temple' - UPDATED

It's time to introduce some 'eyeliner- electro' to Electronically Yours, code for 'goth' of course, but don't stop reading pop tarts.


This third album from the beautifully provocative Italian Tying Tiffany has some fab electro gems.

Resurrecting the sounds of Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie Sioux, ditching most of the guitars and bringing them up to electro speed for 2010 works for me.
Throw in some Depeche Mode with her vampish beauty, how can you resist?

The album kicks off with '3 circle', Bauhaus fused with Siouxise, I love it, but here perhaps we should jump to track 2 'Storycide', sounding like something off of 'Violator' in places, it confirms that only the ladies should dare to try this.

Too much male electro lately sounds like diluted Gahan/Gore.

'Lost Way' is electropop loveliness, upbeat but still feisty. For 'One Breath', someone clearly dug up Pete Murphy, she comes in sounding very Toni Halliday from Curve with this curious mix.
'Still in my Head' is unashamedly sounding like The Cure but sexier, although that's not hard really.

Back to disco electropop beep beep for 'Miracle', if some of the tracks are too goth synth heavy, this one should grab your electro ears and ends with a hint of Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence' too.

'Cecille' probably does push the boundaries of EY, sounding like Curve mixed with Lush and a touch of Garbage, basically fiery lady electro, none of this girlie nonsense.

'Borderline', no don't get excited, it's not a Madonna cover but it's great anyway! It starts sounding like Ladytron and then Siouxsie jumps back in, another track more on the edgier end of pop.







For 'Ghoul', Tying Tiffany pulls off the femme fatale pop brilliantly and the album ends with 'Show Me What You Got' sounding very Chicks on Speed, what a great way to end.

EY Friendly Tracks:

Storycide

Miracle (third track on album 'tralier' below)

Lost Way

Borderline

(With thanks to Glenn Austin)

Babooshka's 'Dressed in Black' EY Rating: 9.5/10







Related links:


Tying Tiffany @ myspace
Official website
Purchase 'Peoples Temple' at Musicnonstop

IAMX - I AM TERRIFIED (Alec Empire remix)

After mentioning IAMX to Orac, cyber serendipity took over and winged an email within 48 hours from REDSAND PR asking him to add this remix to Electronically Yours.

IAMX are glam noir electro cabaret originating from the founder member of 'Sneaker Pimps' Chris Corner.

A fan of Depeche Mode and Human League, you can hear Martin Gore's influence in this first release ' I am Terrified' from the forthcoming album 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction'.

The impassioned lyrics of this angst-ridden electro fits nicely with his more recent love affair with synth driven pop rock fusion.
The signature androgynous vocals of Chris create a unique electro sound.

This electro popster has mood swings on emo proportions, from the great Moonbootica remix of 'Kiss and Swallow' to clearly just changed my mind 'Spit it Out' and then his duet with Imogen Heap with 'My Secret Friend' where he decides to drag up for the video.

IAMX are always the entertainer but at the same time giving you a voyeuristic window into his life...perhaps?

The album version of 'I am Terrified' has been slowed down and fiddled with via clever button pushing by Alec Empire with interesting results...have a listen and definitely think about checking out 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction', hopefully more self indulgent overly emotional bonkers electropop to come.

'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction' is released in the UK on May 17th.

Related links:

IAMX @ Myspace
Buy 'Kingdom of Welcome Addiction' from Musicnonstop