The Japanese Popstars featuring...
Words: Babooshka
League / Heaven 17 / Mode / Robyn
Words: Orac
16/06/11
So it seems Robert Smith is all about 'dance' again, first with the fab 'Not in Love' alongside Crystal Castles and now with the very cool Japanese Popstars (who are actually the trio of clever knob twiddlers, Gary Curran, Declin McLaughlin and Gareth Donoghue, from Northern Ireland)
'Take Forever' has a foot stomping bass line and some reverberating chimes to pop it up and deliver something that will appeal to fans of electronic and indie music, and most likely the original Cure fans. It's that signature Smith melancholic tone with some dance beats which worked so well on the Castles track too.
Recently signed with Virgin, the second album 'Controlling Your Allegiance', due to be released June 21, is an array of guests including the aforementioned Cure frontman, Editors Tom Smith, Morgan Kibby of M83 and a rather hooky collaboration with Green Velvet. Tom Smith's big voice lends surprisingly well to a dance track too and comes with lush synths and an interesting, partially King Kong inspired animated video.
I love these unexpected collaborations...The Japanese Popstars are successfully hanging on to established fans from 2008's debut, 'We Just Are' and picking up a few more along the way. With some pretty cool club remixes including Editors 'Papillion' and Mode's 'Peace', their reworking of Daft Punk's 'Arena' for the 'Tron: Legacy Reconfigured' and the current album 'Controlling Your Allegiance', these guys have fingers in many pies so worth keeping an eye/ear/everything out for in future.
The Mighty Human League popped into the BBC 6 Music studio yesterday for a live chat on The Radcliffe & Maconie Show. Respects were paid to the late Sir Martin Rushent with kind words from the League particularly with regards to the 'Love & Dancing' album whilst Maconie described 'Dare' as one of the true great pop classics.
'The Sound of The Crowd' was played in honor of this great producer before the talk moved on to live dates including an appearance at Sonar, Europe's biggest and most prestigious electronic festival in Barcelona this coming Friday.
No mention was made of future singles from ' Credo' and the League talked about holidays when asked about new material but they will be very busy with upcoming festival dates home and abroad plus a possible UK tour for Christmas. The League were also invited to choose tracks to play on air and Synth Lord Philip picked a gloriously melodic electronic gem that we loved here at EYHQ...Jamie Woon's 'Street'. Do take time to check out this wonder of electro...we absolutely love it.
The Radcliffe and Maconie Show is available on the BBC iPlayer to UK readers for the next 6 days via this link (The League appear 1.5 hours into the show).
Club-i have a very special night devoted to The legendary Human League on July 1st at Factory in London - you can find more details here.
Heaven 17 have done what most iconic bands should do with the creation of a BEF-tastic radio show that is free to listen to for anyone with good ears. Each radio show will have a different theme with engaging banter from Glenn & Martyn and a love for wide range of musical genres.
The opening show covers the tracks that inspired the early Human League and Heaven 17 and fans are invited to submit tracks from new artists to be played on future shows (we've already sent in an email about new EY faves Miracle).
One day, all webcasts will be as enjoyable as this so please do jump at this link, have a listen to 'Music For...Growing Up With' and bookmark that page as a fave.
Depeche Mode genius Sir Martin Gore was recently interviewed by Vanity Fair over in the US in which he revealed that 'The Remixes: 2 ' compilation has marked the end of the band's contractual obligations with fading record giant EMI. Mode are now without a record label for the first time in 30 years but with sales of over 3 million for the most recent studio album, this limbo state is likely to be very shortlived.
When Vanity suggested that future Mode material could be downloaded straight into people's brains, Martin replied with: ' I think that's called brainwashing'. Martin also revealed during the Q&A that the 'techno' album with Mode's original knob twiddler Sir Vince Clarke has now been completed bar remixing. The as of yet untitled collobaration between Mode giants should see the light of day by the end of the year.
EY's money is now on a Wilder/Clarke production combo for the next Mode album in 2012 and we are just heading over to the bookies...
We raved about this lovely pop number from pop princess Robyn a few weeks back and here's the official promo video that has clocked up a ridiculous amount of plays on YouTube... and rightly so. Shot in an aircraft hanger with no edits and lovely purple stage lights, we sometimes dance like this on pay day.
