Soft Cell – SIDE-LINE

Soft Cell release ‘In Heaven (When I Dance With You)’ from final album ‘Danceteria’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Synthpop duo Soft Cell released the single “In Heaven (When I Dance With You)” on 16 July 2026, the second single from “Danceteria“, the duo’s sixth and final studio album, due on 25 September 2026 via Republic of Music. The single is available on Bandcamp, with an official audio video on YouTube.

In Heaven (When I Dance With You) by Soft Cell

“Danceteria” is the first Soft Cell album to arrive since Dave Ball died on 22 October 2025 at the age of 66. Ball completed the record two days before his death. The album takes its title from the New York nightclub Danceteria, which hosted the US launch party for the duo’s 1981 debut “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” and became a fixture of the pair’s early-80s New York period. It will be released on vinyl and CD, with the CD edition expanded to 14 tracks through the bonus cuts “Crackland” and “What Is Your Morality”.

Marc Almond on Soft Cell’s ‘In Heaven (When I Dance With You)’

Marc Almond describes the single as a return to a specific moment on the floor rather than a general nostalgia piece: “‘In Heaven (When I Dance With You)’ is a celebration of the early 80s joyful disco scene. A coming together of the sentiments of the time. I wanted it to be that moment when you run to the dancefloor.”

The singer also connects the song to the city that named the album: “New York in the 1980s was a particularly creative place for me. […] New York shaped Soft Cell, as it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. […] There were 24-hour nightclubs, music, art and underground theatre. It offered a cornucopia of energy and edge, and the lyrics on ‘Danceteria’ reflect that time of my life.”

The official audio for “In Heaven (When I Dance With You)” is streaming on YouTube.

‘Danceteria’ follows the Record Store Day title track

The album’s first single was the title track “Danceteria”, issued for Record Store Day 2026 as an extended mix on a limited white 12 inch vinyl, backed by a house rework from Mark Moore and Dan Donovan plus a dub version, and paired with a video by collage artist Vicki Bennett. Pre-orders for the album run through the duo’s official website.

About Soft Cell

Soft Cell formed in 1979 at Leeds Polytechnic, pairing vocalist Marc Almond with synthesist and producer Dave Ball. Their 1981 debut album “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” reached UK platinum status and carried the chart-topping cover “Tainted Love”. The duo split in 1984 after three albums, reunited around 2001 for “Cruelty Without Beauty”, and in 2018 announced a farewell with a final show at the O2 Arena in London on 30 September, preceded by “Northern Lights“, their first new song in 15 years.

The farewell did not hold. The single “Bruises On My Illusions” arrived in October 2021, followed by the album “*Happiness Not Included” on 25 February 2022, the duo’s first full-length in over 20 years, and the Pet Shop Boys collaboration “Purple Zone“. Outside Soft Cell, Ball recorded as one half of The Grid and released the 2016 soundscape album “Photosynthesis” with Jon Savage. Ball died in his sleep at his London home on 22 October 2025, having finished work on “Danceteria” two days earlier. “In Heaven (When I Dance With You)” now previews that final album ahead of its 25 September 2026 release.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Modern English teams up with Simple Minds and Soft Cell for 2025 North American Tour

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 18:41:17 +0000

The British new wave/post-punk band Modern English has announced its upcoming May and June amphitheater tour of North America supporting Scottish band Simple Minds. The 24-date tour will represent Simple Minds’ biggest North American run in four decades and kick off on Friday, May 16 at the Cascades Amphitheater in Ridgefield, WA. Additional support on the tour in all markets will be provided by Soft Cell.

“It’s been a big journey for everybody, and our early days are really important to us,” frontman Robbie Grey says. “We haven’t changed that much. We’re still the same people inside. And the original members are the sound of the band — Stephen [Walker] on the keyboards, making lots of noises with all his analog synths, and then the sounds made by guitarist Gary [McDowell] or bassist Mick [Conroy]. If you take some of those components away, you won’t have the Modern English sound.”

Modern English will be promoting its latest album “1 2 3 4” which was produced by Mario J. McNulty (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Nine Inch Nails). It is the band’s first album of new material in eight years.

1 2 3 4 by Modern English

Modern English tour dates with Simple Minds and Soft Cell

MAY

16 — Ridgefield, WA — Cascades Amphitheater *
17 — Seattle, WA — Climate Pledge Arena *
20 — Concord, CA — Toyota Pavilion at Concord *
22 — Inglewood, CA — Kia Forum *
23 — Greater Palm Springs, CA — Acrisure Arena *
24 — Chula Vista, CA — North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre *
25 — Phoenix, AZ — Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre *
27 — Denver, CO — Ball Arena *
30 — Austin, TX — Moody Center *
31 — Woodlands, TX — Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion *

JUNE

01 — Irving, TX — The Pavillion at Toyota Music Factory *
04 — Rogers, AR — The Walmart AMP *
05 — Maryland Heights, MO — Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre *
07 — Atlanta, GA — Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *
10 — Columbia, MD — Merriweather Post Pavilion *
11 — Holmdel, NJ — PNC Bank Arts Center *
13 — Wantagh, NY — Northwell at Jones Beach Theater *
14 — Philadelphia, PA — The Mann Center *
15 — Mansfield, MA — Xfinity Center *
17 — Montreal, QC — Centre Bell *
18 — Toronto, ON — Budweiser Stage *
20 — Chicago, IL — Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island *
21 — Clarkston, MI — Pine Knob Music Theatre *
22 — Noblesville, IN — Ruoff Music Center *

* — w/ Simple Minds, Soft Cell

About Modern English

Modern English, formed in Colchester, Essex, in 1979, comprises Robbie Grey (vocals), Gary McDowell (guitar, vocals), and Michael Conroy (bass, vocals). Initially known as The Lepers, the band expanded their lineup with Richard Brown (drums) and Stephen Walker (keyboards), eventually rebranding as Modern English.

Their journey began with the release of their debut album, “Mesh & Lace” (1981), which was self-produced and recorded at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, England. Building on this foundation, the follow-up album, “After the Snow” (1982), showcased a more polished sound and was produced by Hugh Jones, a collaborator known for his work with Echo & the Bunnymen and The Sound. This album prominently featured the hit “I Melt with You,” which gained widespread popularity in the U.S. and remains a classic.

Continuing their momentum, Modern English released “Ricochet Days” in 1984, once again produced by Hugh Jones, cementing their creative partnership. However, their fourth album, “Stop Start” (1986), marked a departure in production style, with Stephen Stewart-Short taking over as producer.

Following a brief hiatus, the band made a strong return with “Pillow Lips” (1990), produced by Pat Collier. This album included a re-recorded version of “I Melt with You,” introducing it to a new generation of listeners. Fast forward to 2010, they released “Soundtrack,” produced by Hugh Jones, which became their first release on Darla Records.

Modern English unveiled “Take Me to the Trees” in 2016. This album was produced by Martyn Young of Colourbox and MARRS, who also provided additional keyboards, adding depth to the sound. Most recently, their latest work, “1 2 3 4” (2024), was produced by Mario McNulty, renowned for his collaborations with David Bowie and Lou Reed.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) launches title track first solo album in 13 years: ‘Ecce Homo’ – Out now

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:42:09 +0000

Irish musician and artist Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) is back with his first solo album in over a decade, “Ecce Homo”, set for release on October 25 via BMG. Produced by Dave Ball of Soft Cell and Michael Heffernan, this marks Friday’s first album since 2011’s “Catholic”. Along with the announcement, the title track is now available as a digital EP featuring two remixes and an instrumental version.

Friday, known for his role as the frontman of Virgin Prunes, has a career spanning four decades, collaborating with artists like U2, Sinead O’Connor, and Scott Walker. His work extends beyond music into visual arts and composing for films, earning Ivor Novello and Golden Globe nominations for “In The Name of The Father“.

“Ecce Homo” blends electronics and acoustic sounds, exploring themes of anger, independence, love, and loss. Friday describes the album as his “most honest, reflecting on personal and collective struggles.”

The album’s first single, the title track “Ecce Homo”, is a track confronting societal challenges. Accompanied by a video created entirely with AI, Friday calls it “a personal kick in the head and kiss on the cheek to a world gone very wrong.”

The album will be available digitally, on limited-edition vinyl, and as a deluxe CD featuring bonus tracks and remixes.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Interview with Mat Smith (The Engineer) on pop music articles and sleevenotes

János Janurik — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 17:51:40 +0000

(Interview by Janos Janurik) Ever since I got into online music journalism, I’ve always been interested in the background characters around my favourite musicians’ releases that add something important to the product we, the fans end up with.

With this in mind, over the years I have interviewed personalities such as Anton Corbijn (photographer of Depeche Mode and many other music greats), Gareth Jones and Mark Saunders (producers and mixmasters of Depeche Mode and Erasure amongst others).

About eight years ago I had the honour of helping to promote Vince Clarke’s then newly founded mini-record label (VeryRecords) and his releases. In addition to the artists whose albums have been released there in recent years, I also got in contact with Mat Smith, who, like me, is a freelancer – readers of Electronic Sound and Clash know him well – and works as a publicist for VeryRecords as well as being commissioned by Erasure and Mute for a number of press pieces. He also wrote the sleevenotes in the booklet of the new “Cowboy” Deluxe-Edition.

In addition to his journalistic work, he also has his own project “Mortality Tables”, which has just released a new mini-album on cassette and as a digital download. Last November, at the premiere of Vince Clarke’s solo album in London, I had the pleasure of meeting Mat in person and we had a lively chat about our shared passion for music. Knowing how important this project is to him, I approached him and asked him a few questions about it.

But then life, or rather death, intervened. I didn’t mean this as a cheap shot, but it was indeed a sad event that forced me to make changes to the interview I had with my friend and colleague almost three weeks ago. Now that the aforementioned label is going on holiday, and before I do the same, I would like to bring this exciting musical venture (“The Engineer”) to your attention – and this interview with the man behind it.

SL: Tell us briefly about how you became interested in music. Have you had any musical training, have you learnt to play any instruments? Do you remember the first record you bought?

I grew up in a house where music seemed to always be playing, either on the radio or on my parent’s stereo. My mother listened to a lot of ABBA. Nothing about that was exceptional, particularly. When I used to go to friends’ houses, they always seemed to have the TV switched on, which felt strange to me. My family chose music, and I’ve surrounded myself with it ever since.

I tried to play the recorder, which was the instrument that most of us learned as kids. My parents gave me a blue one for Christmas one year. I couldn’t play a single note. I briefly learned the basics of notation at school but very quickly forgot all of it. In early high school music classes I was more interested in recording real-life sounds into the Casio keyboard and using those to make compositions. Not long after that, I started making sample-based electronic music on my Amiga 500.

The first album I owned was Nik Kershaw’s ‘Human Racing’. I was given for my birthday the year it was released, along with a Sanyo portable cassette player. I played that album constantly. I wore out the cassette player after two weeks but I still have the ‘Human Racing’ tape and it still sounds incredible to me.

SL: When did you discover electronic music? And who was the first electronic artist who introduced you to the world of electronic music?

My father is responsible for switching me on to electronic music. There were three pivotal events, and they all relate to times I was with my father.

The first was one evening when my mother was at her restaurant job, and my father was looking after me. I was playing with Lego in the lounge and Gary Numan was performing ‘Cars’ on TV. That performance completely captivated me.

The next was driving around in my father’s car while he did his second job as a debt collector. A friend at work had recorded two tracks from OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ album onto a cassette for him. The songs were ‘Joan Of Arc’ and ‘Maid Of Orleans’, and we’d listen to them over and over.

The third was Soft Cell’s ‘Non-Stop Erotic Videotape’, which he brought home from work one day. That was pretty mind-blowing for a five-year old, and I can only imagine he didn’t realise what it was. It was definitely not suitable for a kid of my age, but, looking back, I don’t remember the imagery – I only recall the music.

So I owe my father a huge debt for how he shaped my music tastes at a very early age. He was also the one who brought home a cassette copy of ‘The Innocents’ by Erasure and gave it to me. He had no idea quite what he started that day.

SL: When did you start writing journalistic texts for Mute Records and its artists? What was your first article for Mute and about which artist, which release?

I began a blog called Documentary Evidence in 2003, which was focused on my personal Mute Records collection. I’d just write about the releases from a mostly non-musical perspective, explaining how they made me feel. I still write reviews like that today for Electronic Sound. I also got really interested in telling the stories of specific releases or artists, and that led me to interview people who released music through Mute, or were somehow connected to the label. I have a natural curiosity and inquisitiveness, and that seems to mean people like talking to me and opening up.

From there I started writing for Clash, and then Electronic Sound and some other places. In 2017 I got asked to chair a panel discussion with Anton Corbijn, Daniel Miller, Paul A. Taylor and Steve Claydon (Add N To (X)) at Rough Trade East in London, about the visual identity of Mute. The first written Mute commission I got was to write a press biography for Chris Carter’s ‘Chemistry Lessons Vol. 1’. I couldn’t believe they asked me to do that, and I couldn’t believe I was being paid to write for the label I loved so much. The team at Mute liked what I did and I’ve been given a few more things to do since then, as well as with the team at BMG who look after the Erasure reissue programme, and Erasure themselves.

SL: Did Vince Clarke’s VeryRecords label and the associated promotion give you any impetus for your own project, which you called “Mortality Tables”?

Indirectly, yes, but perhaps not in the way you might expect.

My task with VeryRecords was to assemble the press releases. It was the first time I’d worked behind the scenes of a release, where I’d often get involved before the album was even mastered, or before the artwork had even been considered. So I’d be talking to the artists – Reed & Caroline, Alka and Brook – at a very early stage, generally when Vince felt that the album was finished enough for me to listen and for me to start engaging the artists.

It took a while for me to realise this, but the process of working with the artists to write a press release became a collaboration – between all of us, and between my words and their music. I wasn’t just a writer but part of the collective effort to put this music out into the world. I did the same with Nick Hook’s Calm + Collect label, working on releases by Gareth Jones, Spiritual Friendship and others.

In 2019, when I began forming Mortality Tables, I envisaged it as a creative community of collaborators. You can definitely draw a line between that and the ideas that began to form as I worked with VeryRecords and its artists. I also took a lot of inspiration from Vince, who didn’t feel that he needed to only focus on the music that people would expect him to release. That sense of freedom, which Daniel Miller also brought to Mute, directly fed into what Mortality Tables has become. I wanted something where I could work with people making sound art as well as people making images. It had to have artistic breadth.

I wanted Mortality Tables to be like a gallery, with a portfolio of artists in vastly different disciplines. That’s why Neil Coe deigned the first sleeve image to look like the description of an artwork on the wall of a gallery.

SL: The name of the project refers to the work of actuaries who measure the statistical probability of life insurance payouts. You do something like this in your everyday working life, don’t you?

That’s right. I work with insurance companies all around the world, and have done for over twenty years. I find lots of parallels between the worlds of insurance and electronic music, and the kinds of people I engage with in both of my jobs.

The story goes that I was meeting a friend in a café in Bloomsbury in London one morning. He runs a record label, which is another big inspiration for Mortality Tables. He wishes to remain anonymous, but he is actively involved, in the sense that he must approve anything we decide to do. I call him the Creative Consultant.

So I was meeting him and he had an LP of one of his releases to give me. He asked me if I had a bag to put it in, and I reached into rucksack and retrieved a tote bag. It was from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and had been given to me by an actuary a few years before. The Creative Consultant saw the bag with its logo and Latin inscription (‘e peritia ratio’ – ‘reason from experience’) and asked what it meant. I replied, “It’s all mortality tables and shit like that.” The name stuck.

We created our first Mortality Tables Product that morning. It’s called FORKTALK and is a conversation between two friends. We do not publish the details of our conversations. Its entry in the Mortality Tables Catalogue is MTP0.

SL: Dave Clarkson, who is mostly active in electronic and experimental music and Wonderful Beasts, a sound art/electronic music duo consisting of the anonymous Xqui and Carl Knott (boycalledcrow, Spacelab) were your first artists, right? How did you get in touch with them?

The release that moved Mortality Tables from something conceptual to something ‘real’ was ‘Two Meditations For Freya’ by Goodparley (whose name has now changed to Please Close Your Eyes). That was in 2022. It signalled what I wanted Mortality Tables to be: I would come up with ideas and hand them to someone to ‘respond’ to.

That concept has stayed consistent through the first two years of Mortality Tables. I’ll come up with an idea and pick someone to get involved. At the last count, there are at least fifty people who are collaborators. And it isn’t just sound projects – Mortality Tables encompasses sound, art, and words. And insurance.

However, all rules in creativity are there to be broken, and I broke my own rules in 2023 with the release of Dave Clarkson’s ‘Ghosts Of Christmas Past (Music From Vintage Toys)’. I had nothing to do with the concept of that album, so I guess that’s a bit like Mortality Tables acting like a traditional record label, which is a description I never want to use. The same is true of Andrew Brenza and Alka’s ‘pod’ and boycalledcrow’s ‘Kullu’. However, all these releases only existed because of an earlier collaboration, and that’s how I got myself comfortable with releasing these projects. You’ll see a few more of those types of projects from Mortality Tables over the next few years.

In answer to your question about how I find artist, it’s actually really straightforward. Anyone involved with Mortality Tables is someone whose music I’ve written about. As for how I choose an artist for a particular project, that’s mostly a case of matching a collaborator to an idea that feels aligned to what they would usually do. However, some of the most enjoyable projects are where the artist is working a long way outside of what they might normally do.

SL: After artists like Andrew Spackman, Rupert Lally, Simon Fisher Turner and Veryan, two years ago you released a strange and experimental piece called “On Mortality, Immortality & Charles Ives”. The piece is a spoken word piece in which you read out the Mortality Tables’ manifesto: “In life, our one true certainty is death.” This narration, recorded by Gareth Jones, was then sent to Vince Clarke who recorded a musical response to the text, which forms the soundtrack to the release. How did you come up with this, somewhat absurd, idea?

I had bought a copy of a book by Alex Danchev called ‘100 Artists’ Manifestos – From The Futurists To The Stuckists’ at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2021. I read each of the manifestos from groups like the Surrealists, Dadaists and Situationists as if they were short stories, and it became a really profound experience. On the back of ‘Two Meditations For Freya’, people had started to ask me what Mortality Tables was all about, so it seemed completely natural (and not absurd at all) to write a manifesto.

Mostly it was designed to help me understand why I was doing this, and then I decided to explain it to everyone else. That’s when I asked Gareth to record my narration. At the same time I approached Vince and an anonymous sound artist called venoztks to create sound pieces to accompany it.

The listener can judge whether it successfully explains what this is all about, or not. It does explain why the composer and actuary Charles Ives is so critical to the evolution of Mortality Tables. In fact, the second Mortality Tables Product to be made available was a postcard containing an illustration of Ives in front of a mortality table from 1874, the year of Ives’s birth. That piece was a collaboration with Savage Pencil who had illustrated a lot of the Blast First sleeves.

SL: Released on June 16th, the 40-copy limited edition cassette “The Engineer” is a charity project for Alzheimer’s disease featuring Vince Clarke, Penelope Trappes, Chris Illingworth, Barney Ashton-Bullock, Lara Jones, Simon Fisher Turner, Hattie Cooke, Gareth Jones, Veryan and others. The title character is your father, isn’t he? Is that why you chose Father’s Day as the release date? Tell us a bit about this project!

The title character, the engineer, is based on my father. This project dates back ten years, probably longer, a long time before Mortality Tables was an idea.

I wrote a short story that tried to deal with my feelings about my father as he approached retirement. He lived for work, had no hobbies or friends, and I envisaged him struggling to cope with the concept of stopping work. I was angry when I wrote it, but I was also scared for him. It’s fiction, but it’s rooted in his reality. His actual retirement was very different to what happens in the story. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018, and that’s why we’ll donate all profits from ‘The Engineer’ to the Alzheimer’s Society. Sadly he passed away shortly after ‘The Engineer’ was released.

When I published the story on my blog, an electronic musician called Laica (Dave Fleet) offered to create some music inspired by the story. He composed a beautiful piece but the project never got completed. A few years later, I came up with a different idea, which involved someone narrating the story with a piece of music behind it. That version also never got off the ground at all, but I liked the idea of asking someone to narrate the story. That’s when I asked Barney Ashton-Bullock if he would do it. He has a brilliant speaking voice, and it was perfect for this story.

It was Gareth Jones who suggested the idea of having different artists respond to different sections of narration. He said it was a bit like the Surrealist game ‘Exquisite Corpse’. I think of Gareth as my spiritual guru. He has a way of unlocking ideas, and freeing you from obstacles that are only there because you’ve put them there. ‘The Engineer’ wouldn’t exist in this form if it wasn’t for Gareth.

From there, it was a case of picking the collaborators and asking them to respond to a specific 30-second section of narration. No one heard the full story, and no one asked to hear the whole thing. The order the artists agreed to say yes determined which section they got. The only rule I gave them was that their sound response needed to last exactly thirty seconds.

There are two editions of ‘The Engineer’. One is a digital file that combines the narration and sound responses. The other is a cassette that splits the narration and responses apart. That means the only place you can hear Vince Clarke’s sound response without Barney’s narration is on the cassette, which has now sold out.

SL: Barney Ashton-Bullock (the creator of Andy Bell’s “Torsten” projects), Vince Clarke, as well as Reed Hays, Alka and Gareth Jones will be familiar to most of our readers, but who are the other contributors?

Again, everyone involved is someone I’ve written about. When I came up with my collaborator list for this, it was important to me to achieve some sort of diversity. So a lot of the artists here are electronic, but you have artists covering everything from pop to sound art. That was deliberate.

I also wanted diversity of textures. That’s why I included Charlotte Keeffe, Chris Illingworth from GoGo Penguin and Luce Mawdsley. When you put all 29 sound responses together as a single piece, it sounds like a right fucking mess. As the responses were coming in over a 30-month period, I realised that the sprawling, messy quality was a lot like my father’s Alzheimer’s – ideas form, are quickly forgotten before they develop, and are then replaced by something else. That wasn’t planned, at all, but now I can see it was a subconscious idea that must have been there from the moment that Gareth suggested involving lots of artists.

SL: What plans and ideas are currently circulating in your head? Will it be something journalistic or another Mortality Tables release?

I’m always writing, and I’ve got a few big things underway right now, including something for a label I’ve done a few pieces for before.

In terms of Mortality Tables, now that ‘The Engineer’ has been released, all activities will he paused until later in the summer. We’ve released a huge number of Products in just over two years and I need a break. We’ll return later in the summer with Season 03 of LIFEFILES, which is an ongoing project where artists respond to my really basic field recordings.

We’ll also release a single from Please Close Your Eyes, an album from Andrew Spackman and the full version of Andrew Brenza and Alka’s ‘pod’ collaboration. I’ve been working on one of several projects inspired by Charles Ives, ‘Central Park: A Picture-In-Sounds’, which will be issued as a ‘score’ in October, along with some additional performances of the piece. We’ll begin work on another large-scale collaboration called ‘The Impermanence Project’.

Other things will happen. Other things will not.

More information on Mortality Tables releases.

Use code janos for a 10% discount off anything in the Mortality Tables Catalogue.

I would like to end this article with a personal message from Mat Smith, who asks the readers and the music listeners to support, if they can, the Alzheimer’s Society, which has received the proceeds of the tape release mentioned in the interview. If you feel able to, please donate to alzheimers.org.uk directly.

János Janurik

I began my career in online music journalism in 2001, writing about artists I had followed since the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Depeche Mode, Erasure and The Cure. I later edited the Hungarian Mute microsite for EMI Music Hungary. This led to interviews with Erasure, Nitzer Ebb and Alan Wilder, and some of those collaborations developed into lasting friendships. Since 2014, I have been part of the editorial team of depechemode.de. I also contribute interviews to Reflections of Darkness, Peek-A-Boo Magazine and Kaput Mag. I maintain a close connection to Mute Records artists and have also supported releases on Very Records. I am proud to collaborate with Side-Line Magazine, where I regularly publish interviews and features.

Ironic Sweden offer double single via Town & Towers Records – Out now

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 09:22:03 +0000

Swedish electronic act, Ironic Sweden, presents a double single release today via the Danish label Town & Towers Records: “Lost Eden” and “Media Whore”.

Here’s what the band says about “About Lost Eden”: “We all want to find that true big love. Sometimes we think we found it, and then all of a sudden it’s gone. It’s only then we understand the importance of the unconditional love we all long for. It is a catchy synthpop song, that might remind you of the British electronic music group, The Beloved, best known for the 90’s singles “Sweet Harmony”, “Time After Time”, “Hello” and “Satellite”.”

And this is what they say about “Media Whore”: “How far are we willing to go to get likes and 15 minutes of fame. And when we finally get it, are we even aware of how long time it will take to recover or do we ever recover. This is a song in the more old fashion Ironic Sweden style. Some might think the song sounds like And One, spiced up with some Soft Cell notes…”

The two new singles were produced by the Melville brothers, more specific Callum Melville, aka Calibeats from the UK.

Dan Ritzen founded Ironic Sweden, later joined by Stefan Kauppila Johansson and Tezz Markström in 2023. They are signed to Town And Towers Records, where they released the album “Evolution”. Dan’s journey in the music industry began in the late 90s when he and Fredrik Hansson formed the band Obscene Inside. After Fredrik’s departure, Dan transitioned into DJing on an amateur basis. In the mid-2000s, he rebranded the project as “Ironic” and released a self-titled EP. In 2010, he changed the name to Ironic Sweden and produced numerous unreleased songs. The debut EP “Player” was released in December 2017 in a very limited edition on both CD and vinyl. Below is the trio’s first album, “Evolution”.

And this is the video for the track “I Believe You”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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How interesting was the Vince Clarke Q&A session in London? Find out here on video!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 15:22:01 +0000

(By our UK correspondent Simon Helm of Cold War Nightlife) A few days ago we posted a review of the first solo concert of Vince Clarke at the LSESU in London, with Sunroof (comprising Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones), and today we present you a review of the additional Q&A session featuring Daniel Miller which took place at Rough Trade East on Sunday, November 19th.

Vince Clarke needs no introduction, so Daniel Miller didn’t give him one. The mastermind behind Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, and Erasure, Clarke was in London to perform his solo album, Songs of Silence. A Q&A session at Rough Trade East allowed the Mute label boss to put some questions to Clarke and talk about their shared history.

Update: Mute in the meantime posted a video of the Q&A.

When Vince Clarke met Daniel Miller

The first time Clarke and Miller met was a bit of a disaster. Dressed up in futurist clothes, Clarke had travelled from Basildon with Dave Gahan to pitch Depeche Mode’s demo tape to London-based labels. When they tried Rough Trade, the counter staff pointed them at Miller, who was in the back preparing the artwork for a Fad Gadget record. When the Mute man emerged, he took one look at the Mode boys and kept walking.

Miller chuckles at the lost opportunity, which he recovered from when Depeche Mode supported Fad Gadget at the Bridgehouse in Canning Town. He notes a controversy that has arisen because Stevo, the notorious Soft Cell manager and Some Bizarre label boss, has claimed that he “let” Miller “have” Depeche Mode for Mute. Rubbish. Depeche Mode did what they wanted – and, as Clarke confirms, that was to work with the genius behind The Normal, Silicon Teens, and the sound of Fad Gadget.

The lockdown stopped Erasure from working together

On to the new album. Clarke explains that lockdown stopped Erasure from working together. Inspired by repeated viewings of Bladerunner 2049, he decided to make the soundtrack for a sequel in his basement studio using modular kit. Drones provided the fluidity, while additional elements were layered on top. “It was never intended as a record,” Clarke said. “It was really just for me to learn to use the synthesizer.”

When Miller asked Clarke what he was up to, some tracks were passed across, and Miller suggested they become an album. “I was in total shock, because it wasn’t what I intended,” Clarke told the audience.

The only track with lyrics used a recording of a traditional miner’s union song, which Clarke had struggled to set to music previously. Miller explained that it proved impossible to track down the rights holder for the vocals – drawing a laugh when he explained that Mute would “Take care of them.”

New Erasure album in the making

Clarke revealed that there is a new Erasure album planned for release next year, but he has not played the music to Andy Bell, yet. “We never write remotely. It just doesn’t work for us. We have to be in the same room, at the same time, to make a complete song.”

Miller let on that there is more coming from the Erasure camp. “Andy [Bell] is also working on a solo album at the moment.” No word whether it will also feature Eurorack modules or found sound, but it will undoubtedly come with its own stories.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Working with Fad Gadget and Daniel Miller was an exciting treat says Jean-Marc Lederman

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 08:41:10 +0000

(Photos from the personal archives of Jean-Marc Lederman) This article draws from various updates posted by Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Kid Montana, Jules et Jim, Ghost & Writer, Lederman / De Meyer, Rohn-Lederman…) on his Facebook profile, which we’ve consolidated into a comprehensive piece. This compilation offers a profound understanding of the workings of the indie music industry during its ‘golden era’. Additionally, it provides specific insights into Mute Records, the label of Daniel Miller, as numerous individuals, including Fad Gadget, mentioned in this article have significant associations with the iconic UK label.

Digital Dance (1978-1979) / Daniel Miller

The year was 1979 and I had just quit, well I was sacked tbh, from Digital Dance , the first band I was in.

We were doing post punk/cold wave/new wave stuff and it was really exciting. I started doing bass with them on a..ARP 2600 whci I had bought working on building sites, yeah, far too much of an overkill I agree. We were rehearsing here and there but did a time at the famous Plan K where we supported Joy Division. Actually, that day I went to pick up Ian and Bernard Summers at the very seedy hotel they were in and I drove them to the gig.

They were laughing like kids, you know, young musicians being happy to play abroad. It was such a cold day, everyone was freezing and Ian even came close to Stefan Barbery (Digital Dance guitar player) who was close to an electric heater to tell him “Well, I guess this is why they call it Cold Wave…”

We also opened to Magazine and Fisher-Z and it was becoming too much of a routine for me: the Brussels band that does all the new wave support slots but hasn’t even got a decent recording contract…

Oh, we had one, and they made us record our very fast cover version of Kraftwerk’s “RadioActivity”. At the end of the session, they made me do some terrible sound effects, hoping to catch on the fad of the moment, and it just ruined the whole song. Tells you that if a thing sounds bad and contrived and cheesy on monday, still sounds the same the day after and 40 years later. Sorry Stefan, my fault.

Then Phil Wauquaire (whom I had met from Streets, the punk band he was in and I actually played with them live on a couple of songs with a…AKS, another overkill) joined us and I played synth with a Korg MS20 then with a Yamaha CS50M who weighted like half an olifant after a drinking binge.

Anyway, after a couple of gigs with Digital Dance at the Gibus in Paris, i was let go (which was fine, really). Two days later, I call Daniel Miller whom I had met in London a few months ago. Digital Dance had been foolish and crazy enough to believe that if you go to London you can pretty much be sure you’ll find a gig. All we did was rehearsing (below Beggar’s Banquet where I met Peter Kent from the future 4AD label) and waiting in our hotel off Kings Road. Anyway, we were trying to get Geoff Travis from Rough Trade to listen to our demo and he stopped it 20 seconds in and tell us: if you go to “Better Badges” now, you’ll see a man called Daniel Miller (from label MUTE RECORDS) and maybe he’ll like your stuff….

So, off we went to Better Badges and there we met Daniel, with a green basket full of The Normal badges.

Daniel and I hit directly like if it was an “International Conference Of Synths Fanatics”. I mean: synths weren’t as known or popular then as they were then. It was still a relatively rare sight on stage or in gigs or in bands that weren’t poppy or progrock. No, we’re talking new industrial scene in the UK: noisy and determined, not minimoogs played by long haired musos…

So, Daniel and I exchanged phone numbers and we traded letters and phone calls here and there. So, remember, I’m sacked from Digital Dance and I then realize that if I wanted to really go anywhere in music, Brussels isn’t the place to be and I must move to where things are happening. At that time, London was THE center of music in Europe and I decide that I want to try my luck and the two major chords I know there. I pick up the phone and call Daniel, asking him if he knew any musician that would be interested in moi ?

Yeah, I know someone, he’s on my label now, he’s looking for musicians, call him… His name is Frank Tovey….

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget #1 (part 1)

The audition was simple: we didn’t even play a note or try to do a song, we just sat and drank coffee and laughed a lot. But there was no try-out, no keyboard or synths tickering… And that’s how Philippe Wauquaire and I became members of Fad Gadget #1 for a few months in 1980: a simple coffee cup meeting and an unmistakable good chemical feeling between us. Frank had played a few gigs on his own but wanted musicians around him so he could concentrate a bit more on being a little bit less concentrated if you know what I mean.

There was Frank: clever, astute, open, funny, with a lot of wit doubled with a good dose of sarcasm: totally my alley. But he knew what he wanted musically, there was no doubt about what he wanted to sound like. The plan was: rehearse at my place in Brussels, a first gig here, then play a few gigs as support for Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft in Germany and going to tour the UK as support for The Monochrome Set.

So, we start rehearsing in my attic: Frank on vocals, Pearl Syncussion and distorted electric piano, Phil on Fender bass and Korg MS 20 and myself on handling the cassette player (each song had its drums/rhythmic parts on a single cassette and I would feed the machine with a new cassette every song) and my 4 notes polyphonic, Yamaha CS 50M. Again, an overkill.

After a few hours of rehearsals, we have our first gig: support-act for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. We are all extremely nervous but the gig goes well: Frank doesn’t go into the mad behaviours he’s known for yet but you can see he’s holding up something big inside, something is boiling there. After the gig, we proceed to the German border and sleep in a motel there. In the morning, I’m being handed an envelope with my per diem (every day allowance a musician gets when on tour): it is the first time someone hands me money for doing something I love doing: playing music. I couldn’t believe it and I took a second piece of bacon and refilled my coffee cup. We are about to go to Dusseldorf to play The Ratinger Off as support for Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft.

Something started to happen at the Ratinger Hof: maybe it was the roughness of the place, the German lager (naaaaah) or the history of the place but this thing Frank had inside him but it slightly came out at that gig. See, there was an animal inside Frank, and that animal was as extrovert as Frank was introvert: Frank was then frontal and loud and, yes, obnoxious but in a gentle and friendly way but he wasn’t the shy Frank. In response to Frank’s changing live attitudes, Phil and I started to play loser and noisier and wilder (and there were far more bump notes on my part) but the band started to make sense.

The crowd wasn’t there for us, they were there for what would later become DAF, but the reaction was good and people liked us. I recall Frank and I going out in front of the place and that guy comes out dressed as a mod, full parka mode with a patch “Remember Brighton” which made Frank laughed a lot, people were out there with their beer and… Omg what am I saying: IT JUST FELT GREAT.

Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft at the time was a five piece band and they were fun and chaotic. You couldn’t miss Chris Haas, the synth guy, who was classy and special. He had a very specific body language when playing live: he would stand back, have a smile and just come here and there to play a few notes…He is the real grandfather of EBM as he introduced the famous 1/16th bass line (Korg MS 20 and SQ 10 sequencer) that will be the bone of so many records later on.

The morning after, we went out to the next gig. Daniel, Phil, Chris and myself embarked in my mum’s yellow Civic and we went down the motorway, singing loudly “Fahn Fahn Fahn Auf Der Autobahn” laughing and laughing… I guess Chris must have done that thousand of times before but, for Daniel, Phil and I it meant something different: we were doing it. We were travelling in Kraftwerk’s motherland and going to play electronic music there: it was immense.

We only played one more gig in Germany and then the whole tour was somehow cancelled… Roland Beelen: I saw the animal in Frank I guess a few months later at the Paasfestival in Koninfshooikt (organized by my friend Guy Vanwoensel) I was a stagehand there. Frank smashed a crucifix that was hanging above stage in the hall (parochiezaal)with his magic stick. The whole village was in shock when the news spread the next morning. The vicar organized a special service the next day to please the smashed fallen Christ ! they say he resurrected a few weeks later! All end, good end !

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget 1980 (part 2)

Something had clicked in Frank after a few gigs: it’s like he had been showed by practice that it could work, that the songs were good, the voice was good but even more than that his FG personnae and ideas had an impact on the crowd. He would go out, do his thing, see people respond to his songs, lyrics and theatrics and then he would retrieve after the gig in the gentle and shy Frank Tovey. Phil and I were providing a background that wasn’t perfect but for Frank it was a great practice for FG future.

When we toured as support for The Monochrome Set, we were sometimes in fire and I could really feel people’s amazement at that born-to-be showman. He would play with the crowd and slowly take them into the show. Our sound might not have been very sophisticated but with Frank’s distorted piano, the CS50 brutal in and out sounds, Phil’s impeccable swirling bass, we were like The Stooges with synths and Frank was a perfect bionic Iggy Pop….I began to be very proud of us, we were quite something indeed and I was going on stage with a mission: to show people the songs and to let them fall in Frank’s performance.

I also remember that after the last show of the tour, possibly at the YMCA gig, one of the roadie came at the CS 50 and started to play some Bach’s prelude. I was stunned and shameful of the snobiness i may have shown the roadies on that tour, or before tbh. I learned a lesson that night and never again would I be feeling above anyone on a stage, or in studio, be them multiple charts success artists or simple roadie.

Something wild happened after our gig at the 100 club. Jock Mac Donalds (from the future Bollock Brothers) was very drunk and he started to look for a fight with us and being extremely aggressive, a bottle in his hand, waving it at us. Phil, FG’s bass player, was a karate black belt and he was looking very calm, coming closer to Jock inch by inch. Suddenly he jumped at Jock, put two fingers on his Adam’s apple and said with a slow voice: “OK, let’s kill”, his eyes deep into Mac Donald’s eyes.

The bottle instantly fell on the ground and the guy just ran out the club swearing loud and clear… Phil and I were sleeping at Daniel’s mom place for a few days and we were making music late at night. One of these nights, Daniel was on Phil’s MS 20, I was trying Daniel’s infamous Korg 700S (the one that was on TVOD and Warm Leatherette) and Phil was on the CS 50M but it was visibly too loud and too late as Daniel’s mum came down and asked us to PLEASE STOP !

Next gig to come was going to be the Clarendon, but we were told this would be our last gig with Frank as he wanted a full band behind him to totally free him from any other duties but vocals. I was devastated…

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget #1 (part 3)

So, we were invited to headline Stevo’s kinda festival at the Clarendon, on June 27 1980. Stevo was a very colourful character who will make himself known later when managing bands like Soft Cell and The The. The bill was very symptomatic of the time: DAF, Naked Lunch, B.Movie, Vice Versa, Clock DVA,…

So, Fad Gadget #1 had started touring as a relative unknown a few months ago and we were by now talk of the town and headline this festival. It felt good and it felt also important and I was nervous. Everybody was. Frank had a song by Georges Folmby playing before we would go on. Folmby was a Lancarshire working class comedian and he was famous for playing double entendre ukulélé songs. It was a known and safe thing for British people and Frank used it as contrast as chaos would start when we would cut Folmby and go straight into “State Of The Nation” and follow that with most of what is on the album Fireside Favourites.

State Of The Nation
Back To Nature
The Box
Fireside Favourite
Newsreel
Pedestrian
Coitus Interruptus
Ricky’s Hand
Back To Nature

Yes, Frank wanted shock and chaos, and he got that except that at the Clarendon it went a bit further than expected. During one of the early songs, Fad had already taken over Frank, he smashed up his face with one of the two Syncussion drums and it started pouring blood. Phil and I looked at him and he made us understand it was fine and let’s continue…So we continued until someone took Frank off stage as it was just like a fountain of blood by now. The gig was stopped.

We went backstage and Frank was adamant he was fine but Babra (his wife) disinfected the wound and placed a cloth on it. We went back on stage.

The crowd went MAD. Frank was standing there, his white clothes with red blood all over it, singing to the public that was all won. It was an incredible sight, and being on stage, playing the songs with a singer that went beyond the call of duty was something unexplainable. After the gig, we had to take the 5 am ferry. I was sitting on the stairs of the Clarendon and, yes, I was crying, letting all the tension, the fears of the gig off my system but also the sadness I felt after having lived some incredible times with
Frank, as synth player in Fad Gadget. I saw Frank playing with Fad Gadget #2 a few months later and he invited me to play in the encore: we were cool.

Still, I wasn’t done with London and would come back later…

Side-Line also covered Jean-Marc Lederman’s ‘Sci-Fi Revisited’.

About Fad Gadget

Frank Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), an English electronic musician and performance artist, recorded as Fad Gadget, becoming the first artist signed to Daniel Miller’s Mute Records after the two met at the Rough Trade shop in London. His recorded work combined synthesizers with found-object sounds and dark, comic lyrics. Studio albums as Fad Gadget include “Fireside Favourites” (1980), “Incontinent” (1981), “Under the Flag” (1982) and “Gag” (1984), after which he continued recording under his own name, releasing six further albums on Mute between 1985 and 1992. He died of a heart attack at his London home in 2002.

Belgian musician Jean-Marc Lederman played with Fad Gadget in the band’s touring lineup during the early-to-mid 1980s and has recounted memories of touring with Tovey, Daniel Miller and DAF’s Chrislo Haas in interviews, describing Tovey as bringing something unheard in electronic music at the time. Lederman has credited Daniel Miller and Fad Gadget’s early-1980s touring band, including Chrislo Haas of DAF, as formative to his own career.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Peter Hook & The Light special guests for Soft Cell concert in Kent (UK) on Friday 7th July 2023

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 12:47:27 +0000

Soft Cell will perform live in an exclusive outdoor concert in the grounds of Rochester Castle, Kent on Friday 7th July 2023, with special guests Peter Hook & The Light who will perform music from Peter Hook’s first bands, New Order and Joy Division.

Tickets are available here.

First revisiting Joy Division’s seminal album “Unknown Pleasures” back in May 2010 for a commemorative charity concert and following it each year with new albums performed live from the repertoire of Hook’s bands, New Order and Joy Division, Peter Hook & The Light have now moved through each of the albums from those bands and recently finished up a world-wide tour of Factory Records “Substance” compilation albums.

Recently The Light have celebrated over four decades of Joy Divison’s and Ian Curtis’ continuing influence with the “Joy Division : A Celebration” concerts where they will play both of that band’s albums in full which continue in 2023.

Below is an idea what to expect.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Hungarian dark electro act First Aid 4 Souls offers 7-track strong EP/mini-album, ‘Dancing At The Abyss’

Eldrina Mich — Tue, 09 May 2023 11:51:07 +0000

Out now via the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page is an all new mini-album by the Hungarian dark electro act First Aid 4 Souls. With “Dancing At the Abyss” mini-album, Hungarian electronic music artist István Gazdag introduces techno club influences of his First Aid Tech project into the darker industrial mood of First Aid 4 Souls.

Included are 7 new songs that hang somewhere between techno body music and industrial dance mixed with the distorted or manipulated sampled vocals by Mortum and Vic Willow. All this flavored with a darker industrial touch.

This mini-album is out now via Bandcamp as an immediate download and will follow on all other streaming platforms in the next two weeks.

Dancing At The Abyss EP by FIRST AID 4 SOULS

Veteran Hungarian artist István Gazdag, formerly of Vacuum, has been an active participant in the avant-garde electronic/industrial scene since the late 1980s. He has a diverse range of releases on various labels and has done remarkable remix work for legendary bands such as Coil, Soft Cell, Test. Dept., Cabaret Voltaire, and Einstürzende Neubauten. In recent years, he has collaborated with US-based singer Mortum from Human Vault, who has contributed darker lyrics and a harsher vocal style to their joint project, First Aid 4 Souls.

Earlier this year the project released the 70-track release “This Present Darkness” including four full-length albums (“Trash Cathedral,” “Dark Tunnel,” “Keep This World Empty,” and “I Am The Night”) plus the previously unreleased remix album “Your Social Skill Demised”. The four albums have been re-edited, reconstructed, or newly remastered, supplemented with a variety of previously unreleased bonus material. Read the review of ‘Dancing At The Abyss’.

This Present Darkness (5 Album Remastered Collection + Bonus Tracks) by FIRST AID 4 SOULS

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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35th anniversary release of Suicide’s ‘A Way of Life’ set for May 26th via Mute/BMG

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 21:06:30 +0000

(Photo by Renaud Monfourny) The 35th anniversary release of Suicide’s third studio album, “A Way of Life”, will be available on May 26th, 2023 through Mute/BMG. The album has been remastered and includes previously unreleased tracks. Suicide, consisting of members Alan Vega and Martin Rev, was a pioneering duo in the punk and synth-pop scene.

The anniversary edition of “A Way of Life” will be released on transparent blue vinyl (including an art card and two bonus tracks), CD (with a 4-page booklet and five bonus tracks), and digitally. Jared Artaud discovered the unreleased bonus tracks while working on the Vega Vault archives. Denis Blackham of Skye Mastering, who worked on the recent remastered reissues of Suicide’s first and second albums, remastered the album. The album’s artwork design and concept were created by Artaud and Michael Handis.

Listen to the unreleased version of Suicide’s 1988 live cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” right below.

“A Way of Life,” originally released in 1988, more than a decade after their groundbreaking self-titled debut, features classic Suicide tracks like “Surrender”, “Jukebox Baby 96”, and “Dominic Christ”. For the production of the album, Alan Vega and Martin Rev collaborated once again with Ric Ocasek, frontman of The Cars.

Suicide, formed in the early 1970s, became an integral part of the New York punk scene by 1976. Their debut album has since been recognized as a significant influence on countless artists and musicians, such as New Order, Depeche Mode, Bruce Springsteen, KLF, Spiritualized, Moby, Soft Cell, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Sisters of Mercy, Primal Scream, and Nick Cave.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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‘Click Interview’ with Mark E Moon: ‘I’m Constantly Battling My Demons’

Inferno Sound Diaries — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Set up and driven by Mark Sayle and Phil Reynolds Mark E Moon is hailing from the Isle Of Man. After having released an impressive debut-album “Refer” in 2019 they two years later confirmed their strong potential by the opus “Old Blood”. The band is clearly driven by good-old Dark-Wave and Post-Punk reminding legendary acts like The Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus, Joy Division ao. Earlier this year they did it again unleashing the mini-album “Lux Vindictae”. I consider Mark E Moon as one of the hottest contemporary formations in their music genre. I talked with Mark Sayle and Shelly Rourke.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Two years ago now we did an interview for the debut album “Refer”. A lot happened since then; lockdowns due to the ongoing pandemic, political scandals in the UK plus Brexit, the war in Ukraine… and you released a second album and now an EP while the line-up evolved as well. How do you look back at all these events?

Mark: The ancient curse ‘May you live in interesting times’ has certainly never been so apt. Don’t get me started on Politics or we’ll be here all day. Phil probably has something to say on Brexit but I doubt it’ll be anything complimentary.

The band line-up has certainly evolved, not that anyone was kicked out, we’d love the opportunity to work with Kieran or Steve again, but circumstances change and people aren’t always available for various reasons. The pandemic was, and is still, a terrible time for everyone. I know musicians moan a bit about not being able to be in the same studio but when you consider that more than a million people, in the US alone, have died from this disease it puts artists petty gripes into a more sobering light.

Q: Let’s get back to your second album “Old Blood” which was a rather engaged piece of music against fascism. Why did you feel the need to deal with this theme? And how did the transition happened from “Refer” to “Old Blood”?

Mark: After “Refer” we wanted to do a more cohesive album that felt like the sum of its parts. “Refer” was basically a bunch of, admittedly very well recorded, demo tracks. The title track “Old Blood” deals with this sea of right wing populism, white supremacy and outright fascism that has swept the western world, washing over some and sweeping away others in its spiteful currents. The incident that ignited the touch paper for me was the events in Charlottesville and the murder of Heather Heyer in 2017. The slogans chanted by the Neo-Nazis became a festering sore in my soul that wouldn’t go away. The only way I have to react to something like that is through music and my lyrics, so that is, eventually, what I did.

Q: Your newest work is the EP “Lux Vindictae”. It rather looks as a mini-album featuring six songs. What have been the main sources of inspiration for this work and its title? Was there any specific focus in the writing- & production process and were there aspects from previous albums you wanted to change/improve?

Mark: With “Lux Vindictae”, certainly from a writing perspective, some songs were created quite differently than the usual deal of me writing a bassline, a riff and some lyrics and taking it to Phil to transform it into a proper song. George, who happens to be Phil’s older brother, had joined us and had some fantastic musical ideas of his own. If you listen to “Anastasia”, for example, that’s George’s music and the Russian lullaby was Shelly’s idea.

Shelly: I was already a Mark E Moon fan, so being asked to add vocals to a track on “Lux Vindictae” was hugely exciting –and subsequently being asked to join the band as a permanent fixture was mind blowing for me! My first experience of being part of the creative process was everything I hoped it would be and I think some of our new dynamic shows.

Q: The lyrical themes featured at “Lux Vindictae” are quite different. ‘Depression, rage, assault, alcoholism, the murder of an innocent child and the sheer horror of life on an alien feudal world’. It all sounds more personal and intimate so did you have to chase inner demons? And how important is music to express inner thoughts?

Mark: I’m constantly battling my demons. Being bipolar and having ADHD gives me a certain perspective on situations I think, not a unique one by any means but they force me to try to think differently about subjects. My thoughts are generally pretty dark, even when I’m writing something quite upbeat, and I think that comes through.

Q: I noticed you also released a cover version of Soft Cell which has been released on a tribute-album. I didn’t exactly expect Mark E Moon covering Soft Cell. What did this band mean to you and how did you transform the original version into a personal adaptation?

Mark: I like to think of Mark E Moon as a fusion of Gothic-Rock, the darker side of Post-Punk and Synth-Pop. Soft Cell were (along with acts like Belois Some, Yazoo, Depeche Mode and Blondie) a very important band in my musical development. My sense of what Pop music could be had its roots firmly embedded in the darker (lyrically) themed bands. Of course, Soft Cell had had a massive hit with their cover of the Gloria Jones number “Tainted Love”, but it was “Bedsitter” that really turned me onto them. The cover we did of “Facility Girls” isn’t that dissimilar but we tried to put our own slant on it.

Q: I can imagine you guys must be excited to play on stage again. What are the plans and your expectations? What are the further plans for the second half of 2022?

Mark: We released “Dark Love” in September as a taster of the forthcoming album “Pop-Noir”. Whether the new album is ready before the year is up is anyone’s guess but we are beavering away to make it the best possible record it can be.

Shelly: 2022/23 will be busy and hopefully bear many fruits. We would like to add some UK gigs too. As Mark said, George is a wellspring of music so we have a deep pool of new songs to work on, and Phil’s excellent skills to weave them into a tapestry. After adding a few snippets of my own lyrics to some songs, the guys have given me the confidence to write more. Mark is always on hand to lend his expertise when I struggle. Writing about life from this woman’s perspective can be difficult as some of my past was painful and very dark, but I’ve found it cathartic. And if it gives the listener a new experience to explore then my worst moments will have purpose, whilst keeping the Mark E Moon sound ever evolving.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Blancmange release new single and John Grant remix ahead of latest album, ‘Private View’ – listen here

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 14:47:19 +0000

(Photo by Helen Kincaid) Out on 30 September via London Records is Blancmange’s upcoming album “Private View”. Benge returns as a key collaborator, and David Rhodes (Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Scott Walker) returns as the guitarist, having previously performed with the band on 1982’s debut “Happy Families” (as well as several other Blancmange albums). The new album will be followed by an extensive UK tour that runs from 1 October through to a London Assembly Hall appearance on 10 December, with Stephen Mallinder, Bernholz, Oblong, Rodney Cromwell and Alice Hubble as special guests across the tour.

But first they release a new single, “Reduced Voltage”, alongside a John Grant remix of the track. You can view the accompanying video, created by Harvey Wise, right below.

The new single is accompanied by a remix from long-time collaborator, John Grant who adds: “I have loved Blancmange for close to four decades, so it’s such an honor to be asked to remix a track off the new record. It was a blast and it’s my first. Hope you enjoy.”

You can listen to the John Grant remix below.

London Recordings · Reduced Voltage (John Grant Remix)

Blancmange formed in Harrow, London, in 1979. The band were a duo for much of their career, composed of Neil Arthur (vocals) and Stephen Luscombe (keyboards). Their first real exposure came via the track “Sad Day” on the “Some Bizzare Album” compilation, alongside acts such as Soft Cell and Depeche Mode. This led to them signing a recording contract with London Records. In December 1981 they supported Japan on their “Visions of China” UK tour. What followed were five UK top-20 singles: “Living on the Ceiling”, “Waves”, “Blind Vision”, “Don’t Tell Me” (their best single we would say) and of course also their excellent cover of ABBA’s “The Day Before You Came”. They released three albums during that decade: “Happy Families” (1982), “Mange Tout” (1984) and “Believe You Me” (1985).

The duo parted in 1986 but reformed in the late 2000s, and in 2011 released their fourth album, “Blanc Burn”. Luscombe left following the release due to ill health, and since then Arthur alone has continued to perform under the Blancmange name, releasing nine new studio albums along with a re-recording of the band’s debut album, titled “Happy Families Too…”. He has also been involved in a further three collaborative albums as Fader (with Benge) and Near Future (with Jez Bernholz).

An instrumental album by Blancmange, “Nil by Mouth II”, was released on 22 November 2019 as a limited-edition run of 1000 copies. The album was released on a larger scale on cd in June 2020. A new album, titled “Mindset”, preceded by a single with the same title in February, was released in June 2020.

Extensive UK tour throughout October, November and December

Here are the upcoming UK dates.

1 Oct – Rough Trade East, London
6 Oct – The HMV Empire, Coventry – w/ Bernholz
7 Oct – The Junction, Cambridge – w/ Oblong
8 Oct – Subscription Rooms, Stroud – w/ Oblong
13 Oct – Arts Centre, Colchester – w/ Oblong
14 Oct – University Y Plas, Cardiff – w/ Oblong
15 Oct – Cheese and Grain, Frome – w/ Oblong
20 Oct – Sub 89, Reading – w/ Oblong
21 Oct – The Level, Nottingham – w/ Oblong
22 Oct – Glassbox Theatre, Gillingham – w/ Oblong
27 Oct – The Fleece, Bristol – w/ Alice Hubble
28 Oct – The Boilerroom, Guildford – w/ Alice Hubble
29 Oct – Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne – w/ Alice Hubble
4 Nov – Exeter Theatre, Exeter – w/ Rodney Cromwell
5 Nov – The Brook, Southampton – w/ Rodney Cromwell
10 Nov – The Mill, Birmingham – w/ Alice Hubble
11 Nov – Kanteena, Lancaster – w/ Alice Hubble
12 Nov – The Forum Theatre, Barrow-in-Furness – w/ Alice Hubble
17 Nov – Corn Hall, Diss – w/ Rodney Cromwell
18 Nov – Gorilla, Manchester – w/ Stephen Mallinder
19 Nov – Hangar 34, Liverpool – w/ Stephen Mallinder
24 Nov – The Wardrobe, Leeds – w/ Stephen Mallinder
25 Nov – The Leadmill, Sheffield – w/ Stephen Mallinder
26 Nov – The Riverside, Newcastle – w/ Stephen Mallinder
1 Dec – The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen – w/ Stephen Mallinder
2 Dec – The Liquid Room, Edinburgh – w/ Stephen Mallinder
3 Dec – Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow – w/ Stephen Mallinder
9 Dec – Concorde 2, Brighton – w/ Stephen Mallinder
10 Dec – Islington Assembly Hall, London – w/ Stephen Mallinder

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Click Interview with First Aid 4 Souls: ‘There Is Trouble Ahead…’

Inferno Sound Diaries — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Driven by István Gazdag the Hungarian Electro project First Aid 4 Souls remains a prolific and top notch formation. For the new album “I Am The Night” –released by Alfa Matrix, István renewed the experience working with his compatriot ‘Mortum’ as vocalist. The main difference with previous productions, which were often driven by sophisticated EBM influences, is the evolution in sound. First Aid 4 Souls injected, heavy, epic/orchestral, arrangements to the sound resulting in a heavy, bombastic work. The music creates a perfect match with the conceptual theme of the album around paintings from different international artists. “I Am The Night” is a Soundtrack for these painting.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

I Am The Night (Bonus Version) by FIRST AID 4 SOULS

Q: First Aid 4 Souls is now active for 15 years. You released multiple productions so can you draw up the balance sheet of the past 15 years? What have been the highlights and biggest deceptions?

István: We’ve started at the apex, thanks to the legendary publisher Some Bizarre, publishing us with a double CD back in 2008. I’ve had the opportunity to mix bands like Coil, Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire, Swans, Test Dept, Einstürzende Neubauten or Depeche Mode on the second CD.

Our album “Deathstep” was also a big hit, and our latest joint work with Mortum (Human Vault) entitled “I Am The Night” is considered a great success within the industry.

In the name of being unpredictable we’ve published a Psy-Rock album, full of real guitar riffs and old-school sci-fi tones. This however, caught no one’s attention.

Q: Your newest album “I Am The Night” is a particular conceptual work which seems to be a Soundtrack for paintings from different artists, right? How did you get the idea of this concept and how did you manage the different stages from the choice of the paintings till the music?

István: Back in the days I was aiming to become an art historian; I’ve had forty conscious years of picking the right pictures. Amongst the main themes are manly attitude, and a darker viewpoint of our world.

Tracks are recomposing the original paintings to the smallest details. Light, bound to canvas, can morph back into vibration this way.

Q: You already experienced working with concepts and artistic themes (like “Keep This World Empty”). What makes a conceptual release that exciting and what means ‘arts’ to you -and especially during the lockdowns where people were no longer allowed to cultural events?

István: These days, culture is not a trendy call-sign. One can only rebel against apathy and ignorance through action. A higher level of this is ‘total art’, where high culture is a starting point in composing.

People are generally devoid of all presence, being in lockdown or not. COVID did not change much about this.

Q: “I Am The Night” also brings a different approach in sound which is clearly driven by Epic/Orchestral arrangements. What have been the main sources of inspiration and references to produce this work? And did you notice important changes/evolutions in the global writing process?

István: Will, Coil, Laibach or the In The Nursery are all fantastic when it comes to harmony and Kevin Key is still an in exhaustive source of inspiration to me.

Nowadays symphony can fit on a pendrive. This helps a tremendous amount when it comes to creating the euphony by producers.

Q: A few years ago now you signed to Alfa Matrix. Do you notice and experience major differences being signed to a leading label? And what do you expect from labels today?

István: Alfa Matrix represents a status for us. Being an important company, financial accounting is much more manageable.

Underground publishers are fighting for their survival these days. Promotion may be better with them, but soon enough these stars will fade…

Q: You also started to re-release ‘older’ productions revealing ‘reworked’ songs. Does it mean you weren’t satisfied with the original recordings and do you see yourself as a perfectionist? What did you try to improve?

István: In the past ten years my knowledge of mastering and audio techniques have massively improved. Yes, I’m a perfectionist, and I have a strong inner drive to be able to roar louder and more effectively.

No one can tell that we haven’t said it enough times; there is trouble ahead…

Inferno Sound Diaries

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First reactions on death Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) from former colleagues and friends

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 27 May 2022 10:48:35 +0000

The sudden death of Andy Fletcher yesterday has – as predicted – caused a big shockwave throughout the electro pop community. Several former colleagues and people close to the band have in the meantime posted condolences.

We picked the most relevant ones.

Alison Moyet was one of the first to react: “I have just heard the news. Since we were 10. Same estate. Class mates to label mates. He who kept faith with all the old gang and they with him. It doesn’t compute. Fletch. I have no words.”

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke from Erasure posted a picture of Andy Fletcher with as text an emoji of a broken heart.

Fletcher’s former Depeche Mode colleague Alan Wilder (Recoil) posted this: “A real bolt from the blue to hear about former Depeche Mode colleague Andy Fletcher yesterday. My thoughts and condolences are with his wife Grainne and all the family at this distressing time. RIP ‘Fletch’.”

Mute and Daniel Miller: “We mourn the loss of our dear friend Andrew Fletcher who passed away yesterday. Such an integral part of Depeche Mode from the very start of their remarkable journey, he will be missed beyond words. Our hearts go out to his family, Dave and Martin and to all the wonderful fans and friends who loved him. With love from Daniel and his entire Mute family.”

Phil Burdett who used to form a band, Norman & The Worms, with Martin Gore and who went to the same school as Fletcher posted the following: “So very sad to learn of the passing of Andy Fletcher my old school pal & eventual member of Depeche Mode. Whilst I have never been a fan of the band I have many good memories of the times at the end of my fourth/fifth form at St. Nicholas & he was an integral part of a very fertile period in Basildon at that time & somehow when contemporary friends are lost the sadness felt is made more vivid. He used to come & see me & Martin play at Norman & The Worms gigs & I always thought it odd that he was positioned in between us in this photo…out of all three in the picture two thought they would make it big…couldn’t have happened to a nicer chap…RIP Fletch…”

Deb Danahay who was very close to the band during its earliest history posted the following: “I’m still in shock… Andy never took drugs or even hard alcohol… he just loved a pint or two of lager with the boys… He never learned how to drive. He’d get the train back to Basildon to meet up with his old mates… he was a fiercely loyal friend… Something I’d love to tell devotees… that they’d travelled the same route on the same trains… I was at a DM event in Berlin with Gareth Jones and someone asked what Andy brought to the recording sessions, Gareth Jones was adamant that Fletch brought the whole process together…”

Orchestral Manoeuvres: “Tonight we are celebrating selling out The Greek Theatre in LA but it will be touched by a great sadness as all of us say farewell to Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode. A beautiful person in an amazing band. We send alll our love to his family.”

Jurgen Engler: “Crazy news… R.I.P. Andy Fletcher… we hung out in Dusseldorf way back in the 80s on DM’s Some Great Reward tour… the band had invited me to meet them after the show… he was such a nice guy, easy going and curious… it’s hard to believe he left so young… I know the world won’t forget him 🖤”

Pet Shop Boys: “We’re saddened and shocked that Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode has died. Fletch was a warm, friendly and funny person who loved electronic music and could also give sensible advice about the music business. Our sincere condolences to his family and friends and to Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. Neil & Chris xx”

Blancmange: “Very sad news. I have great memories of times we shared all those decades ago. On tour I never won a single game of chess against him. Before either of us signed record deals we both worked at London Bridge. me under that railway arch as a graphic designer and he in a suit, at a solicitors I think, or may be an accountants. I’d quite often bump into him, each of us doing a double take to process the sight of each other not standing on some tiny stage next to synths and tape machines.
A lovely man. A gentleman.”

Soft Cell: “We are so sad to hear about the passing of Andy Fletcher. Depeche Mode and Soft Cell will forever be part of each other’s early histories and genre-defining the early 80’s. What a band, and what a success story. We send our love to Dave, Martin, Daniel and all the Depeche Mode team.”

New Order: “We are saddened to hear of Andy Fletcher’s passing. Our thoughts are with Depeche Mode, their crew, his family and friends at this difficult time.”

This article will constantly be adapted with new quotes.

For more on Depeche Mode, see DJ 7rym releases 2hr long Depeche Mode mix honouring Andrew Fletcher… on Side-Line.

About Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode formed in Basildon, Essex, England, in 1980, initially under the name Composition of Sound. The lineup that became Depeche Mode came together that year around Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitars), Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass) and Martin Gore (guitars, keyboards), with Dave Gahan joining shortly after as lead vocalist. The band adopted the name Depeche Mode at a gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town on 24 September 1980, where Mute Records founder Daniel Miller saw them and signed the group.

Depeche Mode’s debut single, “Dreaming of Me,” was recorded in December 1980 and released on Mute in February 1981, followed that October by the debut album “Speak & Spell.” Vince Clarke left the band that November, going on to form Yazoo and later Erasure; Alan Wilder joined on keyboards in 1982 and became an official member from the 1983 single “Get the Balance Right!” The band’s catalog through the 1980s includes “A Broken Frame” (1982), “Construction Time Again” (1983), “Some Great Reward” (1984), “Black Celebration” (1986) and “Music for the Masses” (1987), the latter turning the band into arena headliners in the US off the back of their Rose Bowl concert, later documented in the film “101.”

“Violator” (1990) and “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (1993) marked the band’s commercial peak, but Wilder departed in June 1995, continuing his own project Recoil, leaving Gahan, Gore and Fletcher as a trio. The band released “Ultra” (1997), “Exciter” (2001), “Playing the Angel” (2005), “Sounds of the Universe” (2009), “Delta Machine” (2013) and “Spirit” (2017) as a three-piece, touring with long-serving live members Christian Eigner (drums, keyboards, since 1997) and Peter Gordeno (keyboards, bass, since 1998). Alongside the band, Gahan released solo albums “Paper Monsters” (2003) and “Hourglass” (2007), and Gore released “Counterfeit²” (2003).

Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 7 November 2020. Andy Fletcher died on 26 May 2022, and Gahan and Gore continued as a duo, releasing “Memento Mori” in 2023 with Eigner and Gordeno again on the road. The band has sold more than 100 million records and placed 54 singles on the UK charts. Fletcher had been a member since the band’s 1980 formation, and his death left Gahan and Gore to continue as a duo.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Mari Kattman interview regarding being featuring on newest Psy’Aviah EP ‘Can We Make It Rhyme’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 16 May 2022 11:38:30 +0000

Out now is Psy’aviah’s “Can We Make It Rhyme”, a 10-track EP featuring Mari Kattman on vocals. The release is right now available via Bandcamp exclusively.

“Can We Make It Rhyme” is taken from the band’s very recent “Bittersweet” album. As an exclusive B-side, Mari Kattman and Yves Schelpe chose to cover their Soft Cell favorite song “Monoculture”. This 10-track EP features remixes that offer a wide electronic spectrum, two trance dance-driven anthems by Omniks and Karl Roque, whilst the ‘retro club’ edit of “Monoculture” and the Assemblage 23 remix of “Can We Make It Rhyme” will be more for the synthpop dancefloor. The versions of 13th Angel and Jen Draven then again focus more on the song’s core soundpallet.

You can check out the full EP right below and download it from Bandcamp.

Can We Make It Rhyme (feat. Mari Kattman) EP by PSY’AVIAH

Yves Schelpe interviewed Mari Kattman for this release, you can read their conversation right below.

YS: ‘Can We Make It Rhyme’, can you tell your perspective on it when you had the demo and lyrics in your hands? And in what way did it convince you to say, yes I want to collaborate on this song?

MARI: I think the main thing that really made me want to participate in the track, was the meaning of the song that you provided to me. It’s always an honor to try and help make an artist’s vision come into focus, but even better when there is a great meaning behind the music. You also had a friend participating in the demo vocal reel and I loved his vocal style and the way he was reaching for the notes. It was a little different than I was used to but it really inspired me to want to take it to the next level, so I saw it as a challenge.

YS: I remember brainstorming about the music video for this one, and I thought, I need the emotions of Mari on screen for this one. Of course, budget wise, I can’t fly you over, or I can’t come to the US… But how do you feel the music video turned out with these ‘tritone’ colours? As it were your original recordings of yourself performing the song that triggered me making the music video in this colour a lot more, and make it moody, atmospherical, and leave it with an ‘open ending’…

MARI: I was really shocked that you were able to pull off an entire music video concept JUST from the red and blue lights I used to record my part. On top of having the lighting on hand, I thought maybe it was a cool analogy, red and blue together make one of the most beautiful colors of all. So “Can we make it rhyme” seemed like the blending of two different parts harmoniously. I think it was really clever that you moved my takes to the TV and smartphone shots. I also think its insanely cool that you could hire a company to make a music video that was so on point and beautifully shot. It seemed like a lot of planning and work so props to them and however many times they had to listen to the original track while filming.

YS: I knew you since the work of Day Twelve, which I even remixed for… I loved your voice instantly, and then I guess the first track we worked on was ‘Sacrifices’ and ‘Our Common End’. What are your memories on those, and what drew you in to collaborating with me on these tracks?

MARI: Honestly, back during that time, 2012 or so, I was just learning to record myself properly. In my surrounding area, I worked with a lot of musicians growing up who ended up finding other paths in life and abandoned their music projects. I was really having a dry spell finding committed people to work with. I knew I had to build myself on my own, with no help, which was really intimidating. So I started building this portfolio of work and just reaching out to people that I admired to see if they would be interested in working with me. I can’t remember how we connected. I was working with Aesthetische on a few tracks for their album Hybridcore and I think through the Alfa Matrix channels that’s how we started talking.

It was such a breath of fresh air to work with you on those songs and really feel what it’s like to work with other people who have committed their lives to their art and have a firm vision for the things they want to see culminate song by song. I never really had the privilege of that before in my life and I look back fondly on those times and being able to hear my voice placed in a space where it was valued and produced appropriately.

YS: You’ve been growing every year, collaborating with a lot of people – up to the point you were producing your own songs which I so love (e.g. the eat EP). Up to the point now that you are now signed on COP Int. – a huge deal, and something I was waiting for – when will she be signed somewhere as I love your productions! Can you tell us how that went, and how this feels for you?

MARI: Yeah, I mean, I think I have worked with nearly all of my heroes at this point (except for you Peter Heppner!) it’s an incredible place to be when you have broken bread with people who you intensely respect and look up to as far as work ethic and artistry. I feel really honored for the time I have gotten to spend learning from those experiences. There is really something about stepping into another person’s world and having to fit to their working style. None of the collaborators I have ever worked with, work the same and to be versatile because of that is a gift for me.

Signing with COP for my solo music is SUCH a new experience for me. I’ve worked with a lot of record labels in the past but I have never officially been on one alone. I love the fact that these releases are all me, for good or bad, if you hate it there really isn’t anyone to blame but me, but if you LOVE it, well then i’m doing my job. It’s sort of strange to think that I would ever get to this point, it’s a long way to come from 2012 in my room, figuring out how to connect an interface to a microphone and cueing up a DAW. It holds a lot of importance for me and I am so happy to have the support backing this next release up.

YS: Diving a bit deeper into the song ‘OBJECTIFIED’, I love it so much. The hypnotizing pad and arpeggio in the background, a very triphop / hiphop beat that evolves throughout the track. And behind it a very soulful voice telling a compelling story. What triggered you writing the lyrics, and how important is this one for you?”

MARI: Objectified has a pretty clear meaning. I wrote it one day when I was feeling pretty down about the state of how things are for women. Sometimes you don’t feel like you are anything but a piece of meat, and then a “better” piece of meat comes along and it’s all a very shallow state of mind. Women are held to an unfair standard, we are pinned up against one another and compared. We are told “Thats just how it is.” and “Thats just guys being guys.” but it’s exhausting, to be sexualized for everything you do. Oftentimes the sexualization takes the seriousness out of anything you are trying to put meaning into. Its soul shattering when you are trying to use your brain and your passion, knowing that there will always be an element of judgement that has to do with your level of attractiveness.

YS: Can you tell us something about your production process on your solo work, how does your studio look like, and what are your favourite tools in songwriting (both software, and techniques)?

MARI: It’s funny I always feel like my creative process is evolving but oftentimes these days its very organic, like, i’m driving in the car and I just hear this bassline or this melody, I pull out my phone and record myself humming along to whatever is happening in my brain. Then when I get home I rush to my studio desk, take out my midi keyboard and try and hash it out in my DAW. Right now I’m using Bitwig for all of my musical composition but I also love Logic when it comes to recording vocals. I wish that Bitwig and Logic could come together and tighten the audio recording aspect on the Bitwig end. Vocally, I took a course from Berklee on vocal production and now I’m all about panning my voice. It’s very normal for me to take about 5 vocal takes singing the same exact thing and panning them around the stereo field and one phantom center. It makes for a much bigger vocal sound.

Photo by GNY

Synth wise, I’ve really been focusing on writing synth parts/choosing sounds that don’t overshadow each other and that play nice on top of each other, its a really delicate balance that takes a lot of skill and time to really hear what is going on. Drum wise, it’s all about choosing interesting snares for me right now and layering foley sounds into the snare hits. As far as software goes, I’m really loving Spire and Vital right now, I just love the user interface on that. Vital wins the award for me for easy usability and for ease in tweaking sounds. As far as Plugins goes, I’m always always ALWAYS loving FreshAir for vocals, MondoMod for modulation and Wider for finding places in the mix that instruments can sit where they don’t step on each other.

YS: On the single of ‘Can We Make It Rhyme’ we decided to do a b-side as well, ‘Monoculture’. I was triggered to do this song mainly because of its lyrics and how it has a link almost to the ‘Can We Make It Rhyme’ lyrics in a sense – everyone thinking in blind vision, not open to other views and therefore getting stuck in tunnel vision. In that sense I pulled the cover version into the EP in this context – how do you feel about that, is this world to ‘monoculture’ in its thinking?

MARI: You know, being a person who is starting a new full time career, sometimes I do feel like the world is just one big hamster wheel and there is a lot of pressure to stay in line. It’s tough for creative people to live in a world like that, I often think it is a curse not to be able to do what you love all the time. We are all expected to walk the path that was laid out for us (school, 40 hour a week job, marriage, kids, retire) and you are damned if you want to walk a little different. You get up for work and you fall into bed at night with exhaustion and the days just blend. Its pretty gnarly! Keep us busy enough not to have the energy to care. I think Soft Cell was right on point and I am glad to have been a part of the cover.

YS: Can you lift the veil, give a sneak peek, or tell us something about the upcoming work you will have out on COP Int.?

MARI: My newest EP is out now on COP. It’s a two song EP with some great remixes. It is truly exciting to be showcasing my solo work again. I can’t wait for you to hear it!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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ImJudas interview: ‘Force the hand of chance’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 09:07:21 +0000

Out now is “Yrjudas”, the debut album by ImJudas, the electro-rock solo project by Italian artist Maxx Maryan, founding member and male half of the electro metal duo Helalyn Flowers. Initially started as a noir dyed electro pop project back in 2016, ImJudas over the years added a rough guitar component.

Note that the 2CD version of the album ( available from the Alfa Matrix webstore ) holds a bonus disc featuring “Via Negativa” by Maxx’ deathrock metal project Black Shine Fever. On Bandcamp you can get both releases as seperate albums: “Yrjudas” / “Via Negativa”.

But let’s first dive into “Yrjudas” together with Maxx who we contacted earlier this week.

SL: Maxx, “Ritual” is an excellent example of 80s synthpop which has something of the typical anthems produced back then. Some Duran Duran, some Nick Kershaw and definitely lots of Killing Joke, it has it all. Were those eighties the perfect era for you musically speaking?

Yrjudas by IMJUDAS

IMJUDAS: As a decade, the 80s represented my very first one of life, so it seems natural to me that I was heavily influenced by those sounds. Especially if you think that there is always a lot of music in my house, between my parents and my uncle who is himself a keyboard player, singer and lyricist. So, my first years of life were set to music by a very large part of what were Pop and Rock of that period, before, at the age of 7, I began to choose my records to buy and to take an active interest in the music scene. In particular, I remember that I have always paid a lot of attention to sounds and productions. The sound and the production of those years were space! So technological, atmospheric, full of effects and reverbs, keyboards to go, electronic drums … but above all great melodies.

That of the melody is a fundamental aspect for me and today I see that a lot of current music is lacking it. Yes, the 80s were the throne of good music for me. Alongside them are the 70s on one side and the 90s on the other, both mirrored and united by the desire to experiment and graft various types of sound. Above all, great cultural epicenters were spontaneously created. Most of the CDs I buy are usually albums from the 80s, be it Pop, Metal, Dance and more, and that reflects a lot of the music I make. Either way, mine isn’t a retro operation or kind of attitude, at all. I realize afterwards that I actually own entire skyline columns of CDs from that era! It’s simply because I really like it!

SL: Another track that has this feeling is for me the absolute hit track from your album, “People Of The Blame (canned anger)”. What is it about actually?

IMJUDAS: It is a protest song against the preset patterns of alleged protest that the system provides. It is above all an individual stance against the polarization processes of public opinion. Today people are exasperated, pressed about the mess that happens around and pushed to create an opinion and a kind of credibility in a few minutes, with a few clicks. But often the positions taken are those of the official factions. Expressing oneself freely is equivalent to being a fascist nowadays. Just look around, ‘politically correct’ reigns and it has the tones of a soft but exhausting dictatorship.

SL: Is there a perfect formula as far as songwriting goes for you?

IMJUDAS: In the initial approach I would say no. In “Yrjudas” there are songs born from the guitar (“Lost Boy”, “Without Us You’re Nothing”), from the voice (“People Of The Blame”, “There’s A Stranger In Your House”) or from synth and electronic programming (“Tulpa”, “Outcast”, “Apostatik”). Sometimes, since I always have so many lyrics already written without music, I improvise melodies on the sound of the words and so on. There is, however, a recurring element in my writing: inconvenience and devotion to chance. These are very important factors for me because they trigger a reaction in what is my primordial stream from which I extract my music.

SL: A track like “Origin” is fully industrialized as a song. On purpose to offer a black duck in the whole nest?

IMJUDAS: This is a very instinctive song. Paradigm of the raw idea that is refined thanks to the dynamics of pure chance. It all started with this tribal drum beat in my head and the obsessive “Guess who? Guess what?” chorus, which then kicked off the lyrics. I wanted the track to be dark and tricky. I knew I was doing something different than the rest of the album. It’s a bit like my signature, if you notice well it’s the same thing with “Spiritual Critical Gothic” on the Black Shine Fever album. I think it’s a way to take space inside me. Musically, I think “Origin” is very tied to my love for Coil.

SL: The project already exists since 2016, I have seen you gradually polishing your sound, how do you look back at your first recordings?

IMJUDAS: Actually, the project was born in the last days of 2013. The refrain of “People of the blame” was the first thing that went through my head, on the road with Helalyn Flowers, back home. I approached a few weeks later in the studio and the opening octave notes of “People of the blame” were the very first to be put on track. From there then in a chain with the rest, but not immediately in a fluid way. At that time I was very focused on what was to be the album “Sonic Foundation” by Helalyn Flowers (to which I will always be particularly connected to). It was only at the end of 2015 that I was able to put on a first 4 tracks demo that I ran among very few ‘experts’ (you were the very first) so far unreleased (but which I will publish as a bonus in the next EP / single taken from the album).

Initially, IMJUDAS was more an opportunity for me to go back to singing, and do it with my lyrics, since I have always written so many, always nourishing the need to interpret them through singing and music. I was born as a singer, before everything else. The first band I sang in I had when I was 13. So it was a bit like going back to basics for me. My voice, my words, a lot of melody on a synth carpet and a drum machine. Stop. This is how it all started. I think in my head it should have offered something really different than Helalyn Flowers (since I have never understood side projects that are almost the same as the mother-bands). This is why there were initially almost zero guitars.

But it already had a total rock soul. I don’t think you have to have high volume guitars to be rock. If I hear Depeche Mode or an album like “The Art Of Falling Apart” by Soft Cell I can see absolutely relevant rock and glam influences. This ‘format’ has survived over the span of the first released singles and covers I made of classics from Depeche Mode, Front 242 and Death SS. Then something started to get tight. I was born plunged in rock and the guitar is fundamental for me. Ok pure electronics, but, you understand, it is a PART of me, it cannot represent me 100%, but rather its hybridization with rock. I have therefore overcome my fear of somehow replicating my work with Helalyn Flowers, also because in IMJUDAS I can show further influences of my background, such as black music and rock n’roll of the 60s and 70s, otherwise outside context.

There was, therefore, a period of further layering of the songs with the guitar recording sessions, in which I can say that I had the feeling of having hit the heart of the project. A music band is a process of self-knowledge, it goes step by step, and each member offers his/ her slice of background. In the case of IMJUDAS, I had to dismember myself and then reassemble myself, like the deities of the old myths.

SL: Your usual partner in crime Noemi was not involved in this project, I guess she did act as a mirror to give you feedback no?

IMJUDAS: Obviously not in a main way, but still she is! Apart from the amazing art design that she was able to create in representation of her art factory Toxic Visions ( http://www.toxic-visions.com ), not only for IMJUDAS but also for “Via Negativa” by Black Shine Fever, logos, photos, artwork, everything!, but also for her writing contribution for the song “Cruel Times”, starting from her own idea of voice, then for the guest soul choirs on “Without Us You’re Nothing” and finally for the electric bass parts on the track “Uranian (Ad Gratiam)” by Black Shine Fever that she actually played.

Yes, since the very beginning of the project she has always been a beacon for me, a source of encouragement and inspiration. It was she who encouraged me to share IMJUDAS with the world, at a time when I was withdrawn and wanted to keep these songs just to myself. Always precious advices on how to make the most of my voice. Usually I don’t follow anyone’s advice, nor do I go in search of external opinions, but her point of view is always very close to my heart, as well as for everything that binds us besides music, precisely because I have a huge esteem for her as an artist in toto. She is the only one with whom I have ever agreed on the approach on how to make a band and how to stand in the public eye.

SL: What was your modus operandi to record your material? Can you describe the process from demo to finished track?

IMJUDAS: As I said, I have a lot of respect for what chance can bring with it. I always start by not curing one component at a time before moving on to another, but I quickly try to pull up in the shortest way what looks like a definitive shape as much as possible. A sort of transparent primordial chaos, in which the final song is perfectly outlined. Synth, electronic drums and bass are the first instruments to be abused. I get very carried away by the sound banks I can come across, so I don’t start with a rigid conception, but with the general idea of the song, because for me it is important to be able to make good songs and you can do a good song in infinite versions, with endless different sounds and it will always remain a good song. What I always do is sing, even improvising if I didn’t already have the scores in mind, on what comes out, even at an embryonic level.

It happens that I take my lyric book and I start pulling down melodies based on the phonetic sound as well. Then begins a series of overwrites, especially in terms of groove and dubbing of the instruments themselves. I am a lover of the wall of sound and large and airy productions, I am not a simple type, rather a very baroque one who, even when aiming for simplicity, always does so with a particular architecture. I try to have as much rhythm material, keyboards and electronics as possible (and even some choir-guides) before moving on to the guitars which represent a very creative and laborious phase within the recording sessions. As can be heard from listening, in this case I have a double soul: that of the rougher rock and the liquid and toxic one of dark and new wave.

Finally, the voices, for which I always allow myself a margin of improvisation that I like to ride as a chance to create new things that know how to amaze me and not make me remain closed in the fixity of the first expectation. I spare you the painful mixing and mastering processes because I still have to soak up the hangover from them!

SL: You also included an album of Black Shine Fever, a death rock/metal project, as a bonus disc with the ImJudas album on CD, that will be a shocker! Can you tell a bit more about the genesis?

Via Negativa by BLACK SHINE FEVER

IMJUDAS: Black Shine Fever was born spontaneously alongside IMJUDAS. Probably in the beginning one expressed what the other did not do. It started as an evolution in dark / punk and death rock terrain (but coated with black and death metal, the primeval one of Quorthon and his Bathory, so to speak) of an old black metal project of mine dating back to 1995, then took its own specific path, not only at a musical level but also at the level of an introspective path of self-knowledge, dismembering and dissecting parts of me under the effigy of spiritual torment and doubt.

This is why there is a perversely sacred air inside “Via Negativa”. I think it’s an album that has taken on the importance for me as a book that changes your life. In that case, I had to write and play it myself and then decipher its meaning. It was a very important experience and one that I will never forget. “Via Negativa” did not start out as an actual album project, it went through various stages of processing (there is also a three-track demo from 2015) before reaching its final form.

It was supposed to be released for a small indie label, but then the project vanished and I found myself holding one of my most important works in the drawer. “Via Negativa” was the black sun of “Yrjudas”, “Yrjudas” would not exist without the experience of Black Shine Fever. For this I asked Seba of Alfa Matrix to be able to release this double album, rejoicing in the final result.

SL: Was this a one off album or do you plan to do more with this, I actually like it a lot and it sounds so much better than what is usually available in that scene.

IMJUDAS: This double IMJUDAS / Black Shine Fever album is the result of spontaneous events, a story written by itself, not started with the intent of the final form. For this reason, its expressive power is perceived, which is authentic and disconnected from commercial targets and expectations. It would be great to repeat. Not so much because I have unreleased material from Black Shine Fever, but more than anything else it would consolidate my personal format capable of expressing my artistic soul.

SL: Where did you get the choirs from the “Metanoia” intro?

IMJUDAS: It is an excerpt from the Kyrie, mass for 4 voices by William Byrd, English Renaissance composer and organist. I have always loved sacred music (and liturgical too), thanks to my father who is himself an organist and tenor. The idea of incorporating Byrd’s Kyrie was inspired by an old Paul Chain song, “Armageddon”.

SL: How have you kept yourself busy besides writing music these past two dreadful years?

IMJUDAS: … writing music! Not so much for me, but on commission, see for example all the work I have done and am doing for Elyose, among others. I recently completed the album of my very first black metal project Okkultum Magnificentia (out now and available on Bandcamp ) which I founded in 1994, releasing various cassettes and vinyls between the 90s and the early 00s, before freezing everything and exhuming it in the last few years, closing the circle with an album such eagerly waited in the scene for two decades now. In the meantime, I am helping Noemi with the recording and production of her solo work which will be wonderful and will amaze many as well as further affirm her as the great artist she is.

Truth be told, the past couple of years haven’t been that bad for me. There was, yes, some boredom due to some limitations, but nothing that could define this period as “bad” for me. In the end I always do what I want, I’m a lawless. I am not afraid of institutions, I always keep myself informed and know my rights, so as not to be fooled by the authority on duty. For the rest, I keep going. I’m a master of getting by, epicurean, if you like. I live on the edge of society, I can consider myself an X-citizen. Music, the street and nature are my life.

SL: I lived during the cold war, you weren’t born yet I think? But it’s back again…. what is your take?

IMJUDAS: I was born in 1979, the golden year of disco music!, so, yes, I was there during the cold war. As a child, I experienced the end of the old Soviet Union live. My position is solely in favor of those who are suffering, losing, dying for something they never asked for. This is a war in which the mistakes of the world’s major economic blocs are being counted. When too many errors are recorded, then wars are waged to make a clean sweep. It is always like this.

This is a war fought by civilian volunteers and soldiers, both Ukrainians and Russians, who fall like flies for the interests of governments, greyness incarnate armored in the Kremlin, the White House and the European Parliament. People are treated as anthills and lands are exploited for resources. My empathy goes out to the poor people who are truly losing the important things in their lives. Both Ukrainian and Russian. And also to those who died during the war in Donbass from 2014 onwards.

We must not fall into ostracizing the Russian population, as I already see it happening. Culture is peace, it is unity. War is driven by the magnates and technocrats, not the people, unless they are systematically brainwashed at the cultural and media level by the states. This is a war for territory. In any case, talk is cheap. The fight costs life itself. As well as escape. And also to stay. Fuck the world, save yourselves.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball – Imagining October (Album – Cold Spring Records)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Genre/Influences: Experimental, Cinematic.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/info: “Imagining October” was originally written in 1984 but never released. Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) released this work as a Soundtrack for the Derek Jarman film “Imagining October”.

Content: You immediately recognize the Soundtrack approach of the production, but still an explicit Experimental approach characterizing the sound of both protagonists. The tracks are diversified, featuring classically trained male vocals next to choir chants. The tracks are recovered by dark strings.

+ + + : This work was composed by 2 legendary artists from the UK underground scene. I like the album’s diversity, but especially the more accessible second- and third cuts. The work has a strong visual appeal mainly emerging at both cuts.

– – – : This album remains pretty abstract and without the movie you probably miss an important part of the global production.

Conclusion: This previously unreleased work clearly is a sensational collaboration between two legendary artists.

Best songs: “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III”.

Rate: 6½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/electricboydb

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘Imagining October’.

Cold Spring issued “Imagining October” digitally on 4 February 2022 and followed it with a single-sided, etched vinyl LP on 14 October 2022. The four tracks are “Imagining October I”, “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III” and “Imagining October IV”. The music was recorded in 1984 at DJM Recording Studios in London, with liner notes by James Mackay, graphic design by Abby Helasdottir and mastering by Martin Bowes.

Listen to “Imagining October”:

Imagining October (Dir. Derek Jarman) O.S.T. by Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball

About Genesis P-Orridge and Dave Ball

Genesis P-Orridge was an English musician and artist who co-founded Throbbing Gristle in 1975 and Psychic TV in 1981, and who died in March 2020. Dave Ball was an English musician who formed Soft Cell with Marc Almond in 1978 and The Grid with Richard Norris in 1988. Ball died in October 2025 at the age of 66.

The pair recorded the music for Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October” at DJM Recording Studios in London that same year. The recording stayed unreleased for close to four decades until Cold Spring issued it in 2022, remastered by Martin Bowes.

Cold Spring has continued to work with both catalogues. In December 2022 the label announced a re-release of the 1983 Psychic TV live recording “Those Who Do Not”, and Ball appeared again on its 2023 label sampler “Arise”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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Vinyl release for Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball’s OST ‘Imagining October’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:05:12 +0000

Out later this year via Cold Spring is the vinyl release of the official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid).

The limited edition 12″ vinyl features an etched B-Side, plus liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London.

Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work and the combination of music and imagery remains powerful to this day.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Soft Cell partners with Pet Shop Boys for new single ‘Purple Zone’ – new album ‘*Happiness Not Included’ out in May

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:31:08 +0000

After closing 2021 with a sold-out tour, Soft Cell are to release their long-awaited fifth studio album “*Happiness Not Included” on May 6th. The single to announce this release is “Purple Zone”, a new collaboration with Pet Shop Boys so BMG Spain informed us.

The two electro-pop legends initially planned for Pet Shop Boys to remix the song, but their collaboration quickly turned into a joint effort. Their collaboration is not just a new single from the album but this version has also been added to the tracklist of “*Happiness Not Included”.

“Purple Zone” will also be released on CD and 12-inch format. The CD also includes Soft Cell’s version of X-Ray Spex’s cult classic “The Day The World Turned Day-Glo”, and the Manhattan Clique Remix of “Purple Zone”, plus the 12-inch includes a full selection of Pet Shop Boys mixes.

“Purple Zone” single tracklists:

CD:

‘Purple Zone’ (single version)
‘Purple Zone’ (Pet Shop Boys extended mix)
‘Purple Zone’ (Manhattan Clique remix)
‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’

12”:

‘Purple Zone’ (single version)
‘Purple Zone (Pet Shop Boys extended mix)
‘Purple Zone’ (Pet Shop Boys remix)
‘Purple Zone’ (Pet Shop Boys remix dub)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball OST ‘Imagining October’ to be released on vinyl

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 13:31:00 +0000

Out on May 6th via Cold Spring is the Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball OST release “Imagining October”.

The official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) will be released on limited edition 12″ vinyl. The material was recorded at the DJM recording studios in Theobalds Road, London.

The vinyl features an etched B-side and includes liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

The track-listing is as follows:

Imagining October I
Imagining October II
Imagining October III
Imagining October IV

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reﬂecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London. Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work.

About Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, author and gay rights activist. He was outspoken about his personal struggle with AIDS. On 22 December 1986, Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive and discussed his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness in Kent, near the nuclear power station. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged just 52.

Although he made a long list of feature films and short films, you will know him best for the the following videos he also directed: Read the review of ‘Imagining October’.

The Sex Pistols – “The Sex Pistols Number One” (1976)
Throbbing Gristle – “TG Psychic Rally in Heaven” (1981)
Marc Almond – “Tenderness Is a Weakness” (1984)
Bryan Ferry – “Windswept” (1985)
The Smiths – “The Queen Is Dead”, a short film incorporating the Smiths songs “The Queen Is Dead”, “Panic” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (1986). The “Panic” sequence from The Queen Is Dead was edited to form the video for that single (1986).
The Smiths – “Ask” (1986)
Pet Shop Boys – “It’s a Sin” (1987)
Pet Shop Boys – “Rent” (1987)
Pet Shop Boys – several concert projections (released as “Projections” in 1993)
Pet Shop Boys – “Violence” (1995)
Suede: “The Next Life” (1993)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Suicide announce career spanning collection with unreleased tracks + Watch ‘Frankie Teardrop (First Version)’ film by Douglas Hart

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 14:40:17 +0000

Out on 25 March 2022 on Mute / BMG is the official collection, “Surrender”, by Suicide (Alan Vega and Martin Rev). The release holds sleeve-notes by longtime fan and friend of the band, Henry Rollins. As Rollins explains: “This gathering of songs is not a ‘best of’ nor is it a ‘definitive’ all-you-need-to-know compilation. It is an introduction that will hopefully compel you to explore the albums.”

“Surrender” includes tracks from their debut album “Suicide” (1977), through to their final studio album release, “American Supreme” (2002), plus two brand new, unheard tracks: “Girl (Unreleased Version)” and “Frankie Teardrop (First Version)”. The track-listing has been collated by Martin Rev, Liz Lamere (Alan Vega’s collaborator and wife), Henry Rollins and Jared Artaud.

All in all 16 tracks which will be released on blood red double vinyl with an embossed, mirror-boarded gatefold sleeve; CD with embossed outer sleeve and digitally.

Here’s already a previously unreleased version of “Frankie Teardrop”, with alternative lyrics. The accompanying short film was directed by Douglas Hart (My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, The Jesus & Mary Chain).

About Suicide

Suicide formed in the early 70s, reemerging in 1976 at the heart of the New York punk scene.

Their debut album – which was given barely any credit at the time – has had an incalculable influence since its release in 1977, and went on to feature in numerous magazine’s Greatest Albums of All Time lists. The volume of artists and musicians they went on to inspire throughout the decades is huge, with New Order, Depeche Mode, Bruce Springsteen, Moby, Soft Cell, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream and Nick Cave just a few who have acknowledged their debt to the duo.

The band continued releasing and performing for 40 years, until Alan Vega’s passing in July 2016.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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The 10 best synthpop / electropop albums of all times (and 5 more)

Eldrina Mich — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 14:38:36 +0000

Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. During the late 1970s bands such as the Human League, Kraftwerk, and later on Gary Numan, Soft Cell and John Foxx helped pioneer a new synth-pop style that drew more heavily from electronic music and emphasized primary usage of synthesizers. Developed in the late 1970s it has seen several revival periods up until now.

We picked out the best synthpop albums from the past 4 decades (!!!). Here’s our list.

The Human League – ‘Dare’ (1981)

The Human League are ‘oldies’ when it comes to synthpop. Formed in Sheffield in 1977 and initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group attained widespread commercial success with their third album “Dare” in 1981. The album contained four hit singles, including the UK/US number one hit “Don’t You Want Me”. The band’s third studio album, it was recorded between March and September 1981 following the departure of founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, and saw the band shift direction from their prior avant-garde electronic style toward a more pop-friendly, commercial sound led by frontman Philip Oakey. A remix album based on “Dare”, “Love and Dancing”, was released in 1982.

Talk Talk – ‘It’s My Life’ (1984)

Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981, led by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), and Paul Webb (bass). The group achieved early chart success with the synth-pop singles “Talk Talk” (1982), “It’s My Life”, and “Such a Shame” (both 1984) before moving towards a more experimental approach in the mid-1980s. Not surprisingly that our next pick is “It’s My Life”, the second studio album by Talk Talk, released in 1984. The album enjoyed an enormous succes thanks to the big international success of its singles (notably “Such a Shame”). We have a soft spot for the tracks “Dum Dum Girl”, “Such a Shame”, “Renée”, “It’s My Life” and “It’s You” although the entire album is just extremely enjoyable.

Alphaville – ‘Forever Young’ (1984)

The German synth-pop band Alphaville, which formed in Münster in 1982, achieved chart success with the singles “Forever Young”, “Big in Japan”, “Sounds Like a Melody”. All these were taken from their 1984 debut album “Forever Young” which was produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde. Despite the success of the album and its singles, the band did not tour as they felt more like ‘studio rats’. It remains the band’s best output to date.

a-ha – ‘Scoundrel Days’ (1986)

The Norwegian synth-pop band a-ha was formed in Oslo in 1982 by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards and guitars), and Morten Harket (vocals). “Scoundrel Days” is the second studio album by the trio and offered a more mature sound compared to their debut “Hunting High and Low” (1985). “Scoundrel Days”, recorded in England in early 1986 and produced by Alan Tarney, sported such singles as “I’ve Been Losing You”, “Cry Wolf” and “Maybe, Maybe” which was released solely in Bolivia. “Manhattan Skyline” was the forth and final single released from the long-player.

Erasure – ‘Wonderland’ (1986)

“Wonderland” is the debut studio album by the English synth-pop duo Erasure and was released in 1986. Although it was not an immediate success, the three singles released from it did become cult tracks overtime: “Who Needs Love Like That”, “Oh L’amour” and “Heavenly Action”. Although “Wonderland” was considered a failure, especially when comparing it to Clarke’s prior successes with Depeche Mode and Yazoo, the album became an all time favourite that laid the fundament of what was to follow in 1987 with the release of “The Circus”. The album was produced by Flood who would become a long-time collaborator.

Pet Shop Boys – ‘Actually’ (1987)

Pet Shop Boys, the English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981, broke all records when they released “Actually”, their second studio album, in 1987. It was pushed forward by such great tracks as “One More Chance”, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” (with Dusty Springfield), “Shopping”, “Rent”, “It Couldn’t Happen Here”, “It’s a Sin”, “Heart” and the majestic “King’s Cross”. In short an album filled with hits.

New Order – ‘Technique’ (1989)

New Order was formed in 1980 by vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. The band formed after the demise of Joy Division, following the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis and were joined by Gillian Gilbert on keyboards later that year. Their experience of the early 1980s New York club scene saw them increasingly incorporate dance rhythms and electronic instrumentation into their work which resulted in their 1983 hit “Blue Monday” becoming and absolute monster hit. However, we picked out “Technique”, their fifth studio album. Released in 1989 by Factory Records, the album incorporates Balearic beat and acid house influences into the group’s dance-rock sound. “Technique” was the first New Order album to reach the number one spot on the UK charts and had such excellent singles as “Fine Time”, “Round and Round” and “Run 2”.

Depeche Mode – ‘Violator’ (1990)

“Violator” is the seventh studio album by England’s Depeche Mode. It was first released on 19 March 1990 through Mute Records internationally, and through Sire and Reprise Records in the United States. Preceded by the singles “Personal Jesus” and “Enjoy the Silence” (a top-10 entry in both the United Kingdom and the United States), the album propelled the band into international stardom, and also yielded the singles “Policy of Truth” and “World in My Eyes”. The album is generally considered as their most accomplisched electropop album before they encorporated more rock elements in the next album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion”. The role of Alan Wilder was crucial in “Violator”, you only have to compare the first and final version of “Enjoy The Silence” to notice the huge difference.

Bel Canto – ‘Birds of Passage’ (1990)

Bel Canto is a Norwegian music duo, originally a trio, fronted by vocalist Anneli Drecker and musically powered by Geir Jenssen and Nils Johansen. Signed originally to Crammed Discs, their second album “Birds of Passage” is considered as an absolute pearl holding an excellent production (aided by Giles Martin) and a long list of guest musicians who added acoustic elements to the cold nordic synths Jenssen and multi-instrumentalist Johansen. It was also the last album featuring Geir Jenssen. It holds the hits “Intravenous”, “Birds of Passage”, “A Shoulder to the Wheel”, “Time Without End”, “Continuum” and “The Suffering”. The band remains an often well-hidden pearl in electropopland.

De/Vision – ‘Fairyland?’ (1996)

De/Vision, a German synthpop act formed in 1988, was at the peak of its electropop stardom around the mid-nineties culiminating in the outstanding “Fairyland?” album which had such great tracks as “I Regret”, “Sweet Life”, “Today’s Life” or “Bleed Me White”. The band was fronting a new wave of electropop bands in Germany but was generally considered to be the most consistent one as far as quality and output. Sadly enough the release, and also the band’s earlier material, are no longer available on Spotify.

Wolfsheim – ‘Spectators’ (1999)

Wolfsheim was a synthpop duo from Hamburg, Germany, that consisted of Markus Reinhardt and Peter Heppner. Their fourth studio album was “Spectators” (1999) preceeded by two ‘pre-release’ singles from the album. “Once in a Lifetime” was released on October 16, 1998 and “It’s Hurting For The First Time” followed on November 30th. The LP was produced by Wolfsheim and José Alvarez-Brill and held 11 new songs. To this day, “Spectators” is the best-selling album by Wolfsheim with over 250,000 copies sold. The third single, “Künstliche Welten”, was released in 1999.

Iris – ‘Disconnect’ (2000)

“Disconnect” is the debut album by the electropop group Iris. Released in 2000 via the US label A Different Drum, the synthpop label by excellence, its success was guaranteed by the now cult synthpop jewels “Annie, Would I Lie to You?”, “Lose In Wanting” and “Danger Is The Shame”. Originally formed by Reagan Jones and Mat Morris in 1993, after the release of their first album “Disconnect”, Matthew Morris was replaced with Andrew Sega, who pushed the band’s sound in a more experimental electronic direction. Sadly enough the release, and also the band’s earlier material, are no longer available on Spotify.

Elegant Machinery – ‘A Soft Exchange’ (2008)

The Swedish synthpop band Elegant Machinery defined the Swedish synthpop movement along with such bands as Page, S.P.O.C.K, Sista Mannen På Jorden and Kiethevez. Heavily influenced by acts like Yazoo, The Human League, Depeche Mode and Rational Youth, the trio Robert Enforsen, Richard Jomshof and Leslie Bayne started the band in 1988 under the name Pole Position. The band was very successful in Sweden, with a number of successful singles and various awards. But it is their 2008 album “A Soft Exchange” that earned them a place in our list. The album was extremely mature yet very melodic and features such pearls a “With Grace”, “Do You Know”, “Feel The Silence”, “Bleeding Words” and “Is This The Way”.

Electro Spectre – ‘Dangerous Game’ (2012)

The Norwegian electronic music duo Electro Spectre fronts the 3rd electropop wave. Isak Rypdal (writer-producer) and Alexander Björneboe (writer-singer) debuted in 2009 with the album “Watch It All Turn” (which was later reproduced and re-released in 2010). The duo has secured us from a steady and consistent output ever since. In our list we picked the band’s 2012 release, which is their second studio album entitled “Dangerous Game”. Included are such pearls as “Love Thief”, “Dancing Girl”, “World Keeps Turning” and “Tokyo Shuffle”.

Mondträume – ‘Empty’ (2014)

Mondträume is the creative outlet of 2 Spanish talented artists Pikotto Vond Mond and Damasius Venys. In only a few years, the duo rapidly caught the attention of concert organizers, released several songs on compilations, and secured a label contract with Belgium’s electronic label Alfa Matrix where they debuted with the album “Empty”. The hits “Life Is Short”, “Parasite” and especially the synth pop pearl “Far From Pain” show why this band became one of the strongholders in the 3rd electropop wave together with such bands as Electro Spectre, and more.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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Soft Cell release all new single, ‘Bruises On My Illusions’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 11:02:54 +0000

Out now is the brand new Soft Cell single “Bruises On My Illusions” which also announces the band’s first album in over 20 years for the duo consisting of Marc Almond and Dave Ball. The new album, “Happiness Not Included”, will be released on February 25, 2022.

The single “Bruises On My Illusions” is available in digital format, plus the CD along with the 12 inch vinyl singles.

Marc Almond explains: “‘Bruises On My Illusions’ is a Soft Cell film noir about a character disillusioned with everything and who still has hope for a better future, despite poor forecasts. A darker version of ‘Bedsitter’. Dave’s challenging and incisive backing vocals inspired this song.”

Dave Ball adds: “It’s one of our darkest cinematic moments with classic Marc Almond lyrics.”

Bonus tracks in the physical format of the single will include remixes of “Bruises On My Illusions” by Dave Ball’s other project, The Grid, as well as by Manhattan Clique. You furthermore get a remix of “Nighthawks” courtesy of Throbbing Gristle legends Chris & Cosey and extended versions of the albumtracks “Happiness Not Included’ and “Heart Like Chernobyl” in addition to the bonus track “Vapourise”.

Here’s the 2-track single for you to check out.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Dubstar interview: ‘I think my biggest problem will be re-adjusting, if and when the time comes’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:47:46 +0000

(Interview by Simon Helm) Dubstar first came to prominence in the 1990s with the kind of hummable dreampop songs that worked as well driving as in clubs.

Despite chart success, they went on hiatus at the end of the decade. Singer Sarah Blackwood joined Technique and went on tour with Depeche Mode, which led to the founding of Client, the first band on Andy Fletcher’s Toast Hawaii label. Collaborations followed with Martin Gore, Nitzer Ebb and Die Krupps, as the band rode the electro-clash wave.

Blackwood returned to the Dubstar fold and, in 2018, the act returned with a new album, One. Honed to the duo of Blackwood and musician Chris Wilkie, Dubstar’s sound maintained its classic resonance, but with updated and reinvigorated melodies.

The band’s latest release is “I Can See You Outside,” which comes with a video addressing themes like CCTV surveillance. Their previous single, “Hygiene Strip,” tackled the public health crisis. This is deeper material from a group that once got into trouble for using pictures of sexy pencil cases on their covers.

We spoke with Dubstar to find out more about creating under lockdown and their colourful history.

SL: Dubstar seems to be in a much better place as a duo. How do the two of you work together to create the new songs?

Sarah: We live a couple of hundred miles apart, so rely on WeTransfer and sending songs back and forth to each other. Chris will usually start with a template; and, if I like it and it feels and sounds good “sung,” we develop it. Sometimes the vocal suggests different areas to approach, like a key change or a word tweak, and sometimes they don’t need much development; they are almost fully formed and ready to send on to the mother ship, which is [producer Stephen Hague’s] studio.

Chris: Even the people at the end of my street seem a couple of hundred miles away nowadays. But yes, we already had a bit of practice at working “remotely” for geographical reasons. I can usually imagine what the songs will sound like with Sarah singing them, but often unforeseen ideas will emerge in response to what happens the first time she approaches it. Maybe because she hears something which I hadn’t, and her delivery suggests another layer of meaning.

SL: You have been working on new material with Stephen Hague. He seems to have collaborated with a lot of Northerners – New Order, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Holly Johnson and Pete Shelley being just a few examples. How did you take to him, being from Yorkshire?

S: He’s very mild mannered and easy going. This time around, it was like picking up from where we left off. I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but I’ve known and worked with him, on and off, for 25 years.

He has seen me through drunken melodramas to sober neurosis; through Dubstar to Client and back again. He even helped me design my kitchen. He’s always tried to nurture and encourage me as a person, especially during the first album, when I was overwhelmed by just about everything. He was a welcome, quiet and calming, influence; and he used to lend me books he thought would be relevant and helpful. Stephen went out of his way to put me at ease, which I massively appreciated. In all the madness, his recording studio was always a place of calm and focus.

So, the Northerner in both myself and Chris is pretty direct. We don’t need pandering to, and hope what you see is what you get – which I think works well with Stephen’s laid-back calm, on both a productive and a personal level.

C: Perhaps it helps that he’s from Maine and is essentially a Northerner himself, in U.S. terms.

He brings a tranquility-of-mind to proceedings, which is something which me and Sarah have always struggled to achieve without assistance!

SL: The new material doesn’t shy away from confronting themes lifted from the headlines, including the pandemic. How have you been coping during the crisis?

S: I have significantly narrowed my horizons to stay sane, what with ever-changing restrictions. I can’t seem to keep up with which iterations are the most recent, so I just keep my head down, stay close to home, and go out only when it’s absolutely necessary.

I’m massively introverted, anyway, so I’ve quite enjoyed nesting and making unrealistic plans for my home environment, but some of my friends have found it very difficult and I worry for them. My WhatsApp groups with my friends and relatives have become lifelines, even if all we share is yet another banana bread recipe or the latest Donald Trump meme. I see more of my parents, via Zoom, than I ever did, so I think some good has come out of it.

I think my biggest problem will be re-adjusting, if and when the time comes. I haven’t used public transport or been into the centre of town since February. Two evenings out ended disastrously in anxiety attacks, so I think a gentle re-introduction is most definitely in order.

C: I haven’t coped well at all, but making the record has been a lifeline. I liken it to any recycling process: you can take fear and sorrow, and transform them into something less harmful, or even useful.

SL: Sarah, you have sung with Die Krupps. What was it like performing a Visage song with Germany’s legendary industrial act?

S: Well, I remember the recording of it vividly!!!! About three days before, in the middle of a tour, I was given a CD of “Der Amboss” with strict instructions to learn it – which really was mission impossible with absolutely no access to a CD player. Smartphones then were still a twinkle in the eye of Steve Jobs.

So, on our Saturday off, Ralf [Dörper] dutifully appeared at the hotel just after breakfast, bundled me into a car, and whisked me off to a recording studio in Düsseldorf. I had the journey time to listen to it, on repeat, and then he told me I had to sing it in German too! I have no aptitude for languages, whatsoever, although all my German friends love teaching me very bad things to say for their own amusement.

Honestly, trying to get my Yorkshire mouth and dialect around the song left us all in fits of laughter. I could see Ralf and Jürgen [Engler] doubled over in tears through the window of the control room, especially “habe spas mit mir”! It took a long, long time to record.

I had the absolute pleasure of singing it with them onstage in London a couple of times, but I think a lot of the fans were confused as to who I was and why I was there. They were very accepting, though, and gave me a nice cheer.

And then, post gig, I showed Die Krupps how to stretch out their hip flexors in the dressing room. That was an unforgettable image of them all doing the couch stretch. So game. Love them.

SL: Dubstar were managed, at one time, by the same man who had signed Test Department and Cabaret Voltaire to major labels. How did that come about?

S: Just like Marc Almond, our first encounter with Stevo [Pearce] was in Leeds. His first words were, “See that billboard? Your name will be on there one day, in lights!”

I wasn’t bowled over, to be honest. That sort of thing doesn’t really float my boat. In fact, it would be more likely to induce panic if it ever happened. He was one in a long line of potential managers we had seen. The record label were losing patience with us. We needed a manager – needed one the day before yesterday – and we were terrified of making the wrong choice, but were also so tired, physically and emotionally. We were at the stage where the last one we had seen was the best one – and he was the last one.

Also, his girlfriend was Cleo Rocos. Cleo was Stevo’s secret weapon. Both Chris and I wanted to be in Cleo’s orbit. She was just one of “those” people: warm, fun and genuinely caring. She became a bit of a rock for me at the time: encouraging me with writing and performing; buying me CDs of interesting artists, like Dory Previn; picking up false eyelashes for me on her travels; and, most wonderfully, she used to ring me when she knew I was scheduled to be on my own in a hotel room.

She was a big fan of watching C4 Friday night comedy, especially Frasier, and Chris and I continued that tradition long after Stevo had stopped managing us. We always sent a little thank you into the universe for Cleo.

To me, then, Stevo appeared quite bonkers. He also told me he was dyslexic, and the one thing I admired about him was that, every day, he would learn a new word and incorporate it into his vocabulary. He never saw limitations, only exciting possibilities – no matter how crazy. One of his more publishable ideas was to engineer a photo opportunity in front of the Selfridges Christmas tree, with him dressed as Santa bestowing us with our gold disc for Goodbye sales, whilst the EMI executives posed as elves. In the little green suits and curly toe shoes. It never happened.

C: I was aware of Stevo as a teenager, because he was often referenced in relation to The The or Soft Cell, and I used to find his notes of wisdom on the Some Bizzare record sleeves interesting. The one he put on Soul Mining always stuck in my head: “With every kick in the face and every hurdle you pass, the rewards get greater“.

It seemed very profound and benevolent, so I suggested that he put one on our Goodbye album. It wasn’t quite as snappy, but I appreciated the lineage.

We could probably fill an entire book with anecdotes just from the period where he was our manager. I was amused that he had a literal, free-flowing fountain of Dom Perignon in his office on New Bond Street to entertain visitors, until I realised who was paying for it.

SL: It seems like narcissists are everywhere in the music industry these days. Does that mean they are winning?

S: Ha, I’ve encountered a couple over the years. I don’t think I ever will again, now I’m a little older and hopefully wiser. I think narcissists have always been with us but social media has given them a platform to thrive, and we are becoming more able to spot them. It’s that thing: the more you look for them, the more you see. Maybe social media exaggerates those traits in people, too, like a virus, which is very sad. They start as entertaining and end up being toxic, which can stir up emotions – and sometimes that’s not a good thing.

We have never been more scrutinised as a society; nor judged as individuals, particularly in media and politics. I think having a profile comes with responsibility, which some don’t realise, and it’s time we all started to scrutinise how we communicate. It used to be something we all just took for granted, but maybe the negative aspects of social media have thrown up some things we can all learn from.

C: It’s unsurprising that narcissists would be attracted to the music business or any role in public life, because it affords them attention. They’re often good at it for a while, but it’s bound to end badly, because they lack the ability to perceive how others see them.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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First Aid 4 Souls pays tribute to legendary subculture community LD50.hu on new album ‘Fire’ incl. string of collaborations

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:32:05 +0000

(Photo by Brigi Major) Veteran Hungarian artist István Gazdag joined the Alfa Matrix label in 2019 for the release of the dark EBM album “Keep This World Empty” (get it here on Bandcamp) which was recorded with his partner in crime Mortum on vocals. Gazdag has been very active in the avant-garde electronic / industrial scene since the late 80’s with numerous and quite diversified releases on various labels under his belt and some great remix work for such cult acts like Coil, Soft Cell, Test. Dept., Cabaret Voltaire or Einstürzende Neubauten.

On the new “Fire” album (available now from Bandcamp) you get a collaboration effort with several key-protagonists from the electro industrial scene in Hungary. As a result the release is released under the ‘First Aid 4 Souls feat. LD50’ named after the famous cult sub-culture community site LD50.hu where all the fans and artists in the country gathered. A bit like our legendary Side-Line forum (where trolling became kind of a sports we must admit).

But back to Hungary, the legacy of the LD50.hu forum van be found back on this 12-track album via studio collaborations with other Hungarian artists like Black Nail Cabaret’s dark pop diva Emke, Ultranoire’s singer Josef Stapel, provocative artist Vic Willow (and his voice evoking David Bowie and Gary Numan) or yet the writer/futurist Damage of Planetdamage.

The result is a mix of 80’s tainted moody electro wave with a dance floor edge and noir melancholic vocals. It also shows that the Hungarian dark wave scene is far from being dead, on the contrary. A daring yet very accessible release.

Check out this excellent release below, you can download it right now from Bandcamp!

Fire by FIRST AID 4 SOULS feat. LD50

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Naked Lunch – 80s Singles (Vinyl Album – Peripheral Minimal)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 19:30:45 +0000

Genre/Influences: New-wave, wave-pop.

Background/Info: Naked Lunch saw the daylight in 1979 (!). They released some production during the early 80s and are back into business since a couple of years now. “80s Singles” brings us back to their early work featuring the six songs from their first three singles released in between 1981 and 1984.

Content: You’ll instantly recognize the typical 80s sound and arrangements. There’s a kind of wave-pop influence emerging from their music, which might appeal for lovers of Blancmange (especially at “You Tie Me Down”) and Soft Cell (especially at “Make Believe”).

+ + + : The 80s spirit is easily recognizable and the saxophone play running through “Laugh Your Mind Away” is an extra element reinforcing this typical spirit. This work is pure nostalgia. It’s not exactly the dark-wave style from the 80s British scene that comes alive, but some of the typical ‘pop’ experiments. The opening song “Rabies” is without a shadow of a doubt the best cut from this (mini)-album.

– – – : Naked Lunch is a name that will for sure make ring a bell, but they clearly never got mega-hits such as aforementioned bands Blancmange or Soft Cell.

Conclusion: I can’t say this early work is groundbreaking although an essential piece for collectors.

Best songs: “Rabies”, “You Tie Me Down”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: https ://nakedlunchofficial .com / www .facebook .com /NAKDLUNCH 1

Label: www .peripheralminimal .co .uk / www .facebook .com /PeripheralMinimal

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Did you know that Soft Cell’s ‘Sex Dwarf’ video remains banned from UK tv airing?

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:57:49 +0000

Soft Cell video for “Sex Dwarf” is still banned from being shown on UK television and this 38 years after it was filmed. In 1981 Tim Pope directed the video featuring Soho brothel workers wielding chainsaws, a dwarf wearing a fetish outfit and piles of raw meat as Almond performs the song in a tiny codpiece.

In an interview with Yahoo Marc Almond says: “The video for ‘Sex Dwarf’ was ahead of its time, in the way we were using transgender people, or we would use people who were prostitutes that we found around Soho, people that were working in clubs. And then here was the dwarf himself, which really went against what you were supposed to do!”

Live Maggots !

Also included is Dave Ball reacting in horror as Tim Pope unexpectedly throws live maggots at them. You can see the uncesored version below.

The ban doesn’t bother Almond at all: “I’ve never wanted to release it publicly, officially, because it became such a legendary thing. We like the fact some people have seen it and created this urban myth about it. We like that it’s bootlegged and slightly seedy.”

And here’s that legendary banned video!

https://youtu.be/XIRhyaQO5X4

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Kid Knorke – Highscore Fetisch (CD Album – Kompuphonik Musik)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 20:00:49 +0000

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, electro-punk.

Background/Info: Kid Knorke is a German project releasing its first full length album. After a previously released EP this new work will be an introduction to particular sound universe of Kid Knorke.

Content: The music has been defined as ‘electro-punk’, but it first of all resulted from a truly passion for vintage gear like gameboys sounds and the famous C64. It creates a link with Welle: Erdball, but the approach is globally speaking totally different. Kid Knorke is pure fun, featuring easy recognizable passages from bands such as Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and even 2 Unlimited. Nothing is crazy enough and that’s an aspect that also comes through in the lyrics (all sung in German).

+ + + : If you like early electro-pop music with a funny punk attitude on top, this album will give you full satisfaction. This vintage sound approach remains something really unique and definitely easily recognizable. It’s vintage-like and pure nostalgia. One of my favorite cuts entitled “Undertaker vs. Cpt. Einsicht” is probably also the most serious one (sound-wise).

– – – : Good-old gameboys sounds are cool, but Kid Knorke is really abusing of these old effects. It starts to become a little bit annoying after a while. You sometimes get the impression that you are walking on a fairy ground instead of listening to an album.

Conclusion: I like this album for a couple of songs, untill it all becomes a little bit repetitive and predictable. It however is a funny experience.

Best songs: “Undertaker vs. Cpt. Einsicht”, “Jesus Christus – Sunflowers Of Death Cover feat. Jan Off”.

Rate: (6).

Artist: www .facebook .com /kidknorke

Label: www .kompuphonik .de / www .facebook .com /Kompuphonik

Inferno Sound Diaries

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Coil + Zos Kia + Marc Almond – How To Destroy Angels / A Slow Fade To Total Transparency (CD Album – Cold Spring Records)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 19:30:12 +0000

Genre/Influences: Experimental, industrial.

Background/Info: Cold Spring Records’ time machine brings us back to 1983 when John Balance (Coil), John Gosling (Zos Kia) and Marc Almond (Soft Cell) recorded “A Slow Fade To Total Transparency”. The live mix was done by Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil). This work brings us back to the original recordings, which have been remastered. It’s a previously unreleased and therefore exclusive release featuring legendary pioneers of the experimental- and industrial movement.

Content: The opening cut was recorded live at ‘The Air Gallery’ on August, 24^th, 1983. It’s a long and experimental piece (over the 23 minutes), which reflects the true spirit of early –and especially British, experimental music. It’s a kind of sonic documentary; an endless narration (which you also can call a raw-kind of poetry) joined by multiple noises mixed in the background. The last part features more explicit sounds of percussion, metallic noises, glasses ao.

We next get a remix –and shorter cut, by Zos Kia, which appears to be an industrial collage. Last, but not least there’s also a live track from Zos Kia (composed together with John Balance) from 1983.

+ + + : This record is a part of the experimental- & industrial music history. It brings exceptional artists together who accomplished a truly experimental- and visionary work. The original version reflects the early spirit of this experimental movement while it also brings us back to the first hours of Coil. They later on released the 12” “How To Destroy Angels” (a version of 16”) and the debut album “Scatology”. Coil instantly entered into history and this work is what originally happened before their glorious days. I like the more industrial-like remix by Zos Kia while the live track by Zos Kia also is a noticeable cut.

– – – : I think you really have to know what 80s experimental music was all about to fully enjoy this work. If you never heard of Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Z’ev, Non, Monte Cazazza, The Hafler Trio, Last Few Days and co you probably will find this album monotone and without a real interest.

Conclusion: Cold Spring Records again had brought a truly sonic legacy and industrial treasure to life! An absolute must have!

Best songs: “How To Destroy Angels”, “How To destroy Angels – Zos Kia Remix”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www .facebook .com /MarcAlmondOfficial

Label: www .coldspring .co .uk / www .facebook .com /coldspringhq

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Soft Cell release first new song in 15 years: ‘Northern Lights’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 12:58:59 +0000

Soft Cell have just released their first new song in 15 years, the (rather delicious) electropop track “Northern Lights”. The release comes as the duo is preparing for a farewell concert at the O2 Arena, London, on 30 September. You can check out the song in a radio edit below.

“Northern Lights”, along with another new track, “Guilty (Cos I Say You Are)”, will be on the band’s compilation album, “The Singles – Keychains and Snowstorms” which will be released on 28 September.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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UK synth pop act Cyber Monday launches new album ‘Store Debit’ – also available on USB !

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 07:20:48 +0000

Out now is “Store Debit”, the second album by the one-man project Cyber Monday, a UK synthpop project incorporating EDM elements in its sound. Signed to Pink Dolphin Records, influences include Erasure, Soft Cell, Human League, Depeche Mode and more modern artists such as FrankMusik, Client, Marsheaux or The Modern.

The second album is a remixed and alternative version of the first album “Store Credit”. It is currently available on Bandcamp in USB and digital Formats. Note that the USB contains 31 tracks!

You can check out the new album right below.

Store Debit by Cyber Monday

The project’s debut album “Store Credit” saw a release on CD and cassette on Bandcamp (and all other digital platforms of course). The debut was also available as a limited vinyl but that sold out within a few days. You can still order other formats on Bandcamp.

Store Credit by Cyber Monday

More info can be found on the project’s official website.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Soft Cell call it quits – final show in September in London

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 19:00:23 +0000

The English synthpop duo Soft Cell, consisting of Marc Almond and Dave Ball, have announced a farewell reunion concert. The concert is their first in 15 years and will take place at London’s O2 on September 30.

The final show is marking their 40th anniversary as a duo. Marc Almond: “With Soft Cell I always felt something was unfinished. This last ever final show will be the best ever ending. It will be a real statement and send off, and thank you to every fan.”

Tickets can be ordered right here starting tomorrow morning, if you want to book a hotel in London, check now (tip: you’ll get 10% cash back via this Booking.com link)!

Rumour has it that the ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’ concert will also be filmed for a later video release.

Soft Cell was initiated during 1977 after Almond and Ball met at Leeds Polytechnic. The same year they releases a self-financed EP, “Mutant Moments”, which caught the interest of record labels such as Mute Records and Some Bizzare Records.

Not surprisingly Soft Cell’s next recording, “The Girl with the Patent Leather Face”, appeared as a contribution to the “Some Bizzare Album”, which featured then-unknown bands such as Depeche Mode, The The, and Blancmange. The duo ultimately signed to the Some Bizzare label, backed by Phonogram Records. And the rest is history!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Who is behind the brand new dark wave project ImJudas? Here’s your answer… and interview!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:30:50 +0000

Whilst checking out the recent free Alfa Matrix download compilation “Matrix Downloaded 006“, one new name popped up: ImJudas with “People Of The Blame (Alfa Edit)”, a dark wave track that already caught the attention of many especially thanks to it references to bands like early Alphaville, Deine Lakaien and related acts. Well, we can now reveal that ImJudas is in fact the brand new electro dark wave solo-project from maXX of the Italian dark/gothic electro metal duo Helalyn Flowers!

We contacted maXX a few days ago to give us some info on this well hidden project from him. But first, here’s the track (which you can download for free from bandcamp now).

Matrix Downloaded 006 by IMJUDAS

SL: I had expected a guitar-powered project from you, but you totally went synth/electropop with ImJudas, talking of a real surprise!

M: Actually nobody was expecting this! You know, many figure me as a rude guy attached to his guitar but the truth is that I simply live my life as a manifesto of self-expression. Why Synth Pop? I didn’t wake up one day and sat at the studio trying to do something different. I don’t plan my projects that way. They all come from a voice within and that voice is the singing in my head. It happened that I was touring with Helalyn Flowers and on the road back to home I had in my mind two of the ImJudas songs. When I started working at the studio I simply followed my instinct and sang my lyrics on a synthesizer and a drum machine. It worked so I stuck that line. It’s a part of me that still I hadn’t time or a chance to let come out.

The main focus is on my voice and on the rhythm as well. There are almost no guitars on purpose because they would saturate the sound too much and these songs need more room within, a sort of something untold. Secondly, I already have other projects that unleash me as a guitarist, like Helalyn Flowers, that all you already know, and Black Shine Fever (formerly known as BlackCore) that is my other solo-project which EP is going to be released this Winter and that sounds like a blend of Post-Punk, Heavy Metal and Goth Rock.

I don’t know if the ‘synth pop’ label is appropriate for describing ImJudas, at least on my personal level, because there is this current tendency to have everything so polish, so clean, with clinic productions that all sound the same and that I keep my distance from. What I love in the early works in this genre was just the dirt, the slight defects, the image of the machines replacing traditional electric instruments and not humans. When I put ‘play’ on albums like ‘The Art of Falling Apart’ of Soft Cell or ‘Dark Star’ by Deine Lakaien I can feel that Rock n’Roll element that was typical to the genre. I am still in that mood, that’s the way I like it (sorry K.C.). I’d like that people accept the fact that ImJudas is not a ‘nice’ act’ and that there is a bloodline of Rock music within it. Well, sonically ImJudas may have all the rules of Synth Pop but I wish that everyone will catch the dark/wavey blood of ImJudas too.

SL: Any special references next to the aforementioned acts?

M: I like to think that ImJudas is some kind of ‘double’ that I exhaled when I was a kid and watched at the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ movie. That’s when I heard for the first time that dark and dancy stuff from Colin Newman and Q Lazzarus. I started searching for those records so I ran into Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Dead Or Alive, Visage, Talk Talk and all that great 80s stuff before I went deeper and deeper with acts like Coil, Deine Lakaien and Virgin Prunes. The common source of all these acts were always icons of the 70s like Bowie and Roxy Music that I love so much. Also the new-romantics were influenced by that stuff and in fact they inspire me as well.

ImJudas is now the face of that ‘double’, it’s the voice of that child ravished by a beautiful underworld of black and white shapes.

SL: You have been working in total secret on this project, I guess Noemi was aware of your tendencies? 😉

M: How couldn’t she? Eheh… She is aware of all of my tendencies as well as of all the music that I write and that still is imprisoned in hard-disks and CD-R’s! Simply, my ‘secret’ is based on my belief that if I have to unleash something then that something must be ready for me. I can wake up tomorrow and put all of my unreleased music on Bandcamp just for a compulsive share-thing but it wouldn’t be true to myself.

A project of mine should live its own life in the dark before being launched. It must have its own story. Noemi has been my muse, my advisor and always pushed me to bring this to the light of day. I was in the studio listening to these songs over and over again with other music trying to come out of my mind… so at a point, it’s been healthy to me to unleash everything. It’s like freeing a flock of wildened birds imprisoned in the house. And Noemi was always there at my side telling me wise words. I thank her everyday. She’s a part of ImJudas, she takes care of the whole visual and she is my vocal trainer too!

SL: How does it feel to finally come out of the closet?

M: Hah! I feel like I’m still in the closet! Jokes apart, I always try to not think at this kind of things. I learned to feel detached. I ain’t the kind of emotional guy, I want to turn emotions into feelings. But… How good is the human circle of emotions when it allows you to lose yourself in the tide, even just for a while? ?

SL: what’s in the pipeline for ImJudas?

M: My next song to be released after “People Of The Blame (Alfa Edit)” is going to be a cover version of the Front 242 classic ‘Don’t Crash’ on an Alfa Matrix tribute 2CD out next 16 December. I want to release my debut album next year because this stuff is tired to be played among these four walls and I can’t afford to get insane, at least not now! ;-))

You can find ImJudas right here on Facebook.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Dave Ball (Soft Cell) and Jon Savage release soundscape album ‘Photosynthesis’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:57:36 +0000

Out by early October – and ready for ordering now – is a brand new album by Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) and classical music trained pianist Jon Savage. The duo recorded the ambient experimental album at the Orange Girls Studio.

“Photosynthesis” turns out to be a soundscape album created via digital recording and processing of vintage analogue sound sources (in this case the duo used mini Moog, Sequential Circuits, Prophet 5 synthesizers etc.) the piece gradually took shape.

Ball explains how they recorded the material: “We started composing some quasi pop/classical pieces that gradually morphed and evolved into one, hour-long piece. The title ‘Photosynthesis’ was re-appropriated from the botanical process. Sitting in the garden surrounded by trees and plants on a sunny day, the idea of organisms using sunlight to synthesise nutrients from CO2 and water became an inspiration to us. This idea, juxtaposed with mankind’s destruction of the planet through pollution and war gave us the inspiration to compose this soundscape.”

You can order this brand new release already now from this website.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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A★I – Le Chant Du Cygne Noir (CD Album – Unknown Pleasures Records)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:00:01 +0000

Genre/Influences: Dark-pop.

Background/Info: My first feeling was that this band was the logical new project of Pedro Peñas Robles after the end of Adan & Ilse. The band name clearly appears to be inspired from his previous band he was involved with Usher (Norma Loy). A★I was set up in 2015 by Pedro (vocals) and Philippe Merry aka Phllox (producer). The band claims to be inspired by dark-pop artists and refers to Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Laiback and even Lassigue Bendthaus.

Content: The sound is a bit different from the body-pop minimalism of Adan & Ilse although there clearly is a link in the global sound approach. There indeed is a link with some aforementioned bands –and especially Depeche Mode, but still with Kraftwerk and even Vangelis. This work mixes good-old standards with a unique sound production, which clearly experiments with new ideas.

“Le Chant Du Cygne Noir” sounds vintage-like, but still ambient-like. The production reveals phenomenal, deep resonating bass lines and haunting atmospheres. Cold sequences and sterile vocals reactivate the good-old 80s spirit while the surprising cover version of “Ashes To Ashes” featuring Dan Söderqvist on guitar (known from Twice A Man) has been remarkably transposed into the sonic universe of A★I. I know that Pedro Peñas Robles is a fan of David Bowie so in the end this cover version is not totally surprising, but the way the song has been reworked and adapted is really worthy of examination.

+ + + : You really have to listen a few time to this album to fully seize the judicious mix of influences which will remind you of Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk on one side and the personal sound input on the other. It’s an efficient balance resulting in an open-minded work, which clearly appears the start of a new adventure for Unknown Pleasures Records owner Pedro Peñas Robles.

– – – : This album clearly is not the most accessible electro-pop release. It even makes me think to a reaction against familiar electro-pop standards, which are constantly repeating themselves. So in the end I would say that the main strength of this work also is the main point and reason for classical electro-pop lovers to turn their back on this band.

Conclusion: A★I clearly sounds like a challenge when it comes to convince electro-pop lovers, but it more sounds like a nice addition and alternative to electro-pop for all of those who are bored with endless emulations of Depeche Mode and co.

Best songs: “We Are One Nation”, “Sin Of Sin”, “Goodbye Lady Red”, “A Secret”, “Dark Stars”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www .facebook .com /havoc 2027

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Inferno Sound Diaries

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First 3 Psyche albums re-released with lots of extra rare material – we talked with Darrin Huss

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Thu, 12 May 2016 15:54:28 +0000

The fine label Artoffact Records has announced the authorised reissues of the three 1980s albums that introduced the Canadian electropop act Psyche to the world on CD and on vinyl. To get an overview of all available releases (including a huge fan pack), check this link. EU orders for the vinyls can be placed right here.

Psyche was formed by brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss in Edmonton, Alberta, named after the B-Side of Killing Joke’s Wardance single as well as being chosen for the meaning of the word. The band’s debut performance was on December 13, 1982 with the late Dwayne Goettel (Skinny Puppy) on additional keyboards. Although Psyche is now based in Germany, during the 80s the band was located in Canada from where singer Darrin Huss and his brother/musician Stephen Huss (who unfortunately died last Summer) would conquer the electropop world in no time.

Available now are the CD versions and vinyl versions.

We decided to talk with Darrin Huss about each of these 3 amazing albums which finally see a well deserved reissue and which have been part of the upbringing of almost the complete Side-Line staff.

“Insomnia Theatre” – Deluxe (available here / EU vinyl orders can be placed here)

During 1983-85 Stephen and Darrin Huss would record what would become their debut album “Insomnia Theatre”. They self-released the LP in 1985. The album’s style mixed dark electronics, new wave, industrial, and horror in ways that were quite shocking to its first Canadian audience, and which today are seen by synth music aficionados as a master work. The album held such classic cuts as “The Brain Collapses”, “Maggots”, “Eating Violins” and “Children Carry Knives”. The album also made its way to Europe where it was licensed by the pioneering French New Rose label.

The Artoffact Records reissue is completely remastered and includes several bonus tracks which have never before been released. The base of the recording is the original Canadian LP Mix, with the addition of several tracks from the New Rose 1985 edition, plus bonus tracks from the “Contorting the Image” EP (1986) and the very rare “Unleashed” cassette (1988). Singer Darrin Huss personally selected all the bonus material, including the never-before-heard “Ice” and “Mind Over Matter”.

Darrin: “Psyche’s debut has now been released several times, the biggest edition being the “Insomnia Theatre” Box on VOD Records in 2011. This time however, I have attempted to make a definitive release containing only the recordings from 1983-1985, and the album cover is now in fact the actual photo of my brother and I that I found in his collection in Canada after his passing away last year.

I spent a lot of time deciding what to put on here, so it reflects the Canadian release with one additional related track on Side A and B. “Lies” was only recording once directly to cassette, and performed briefly at the beginning of our live concerts between 1982-83. It shows the influence of DAF, mixed with more punk attitude lyrics inspired by Dead Kennedys
as also heard in “Children Carry Knives”. Side B adds “Wrench” as it was recorded even before the debut album, and later included on the New Rose release of “Insomnia Theatre”.

New discoveries are collected on Side D, as well as the previously unreleased instrumental “Ice” that I always liked, but we never pursued it further afterwards. “Night Watcher” on Side D is my personal highlight discovered on our early demo cassettes, and would make a great debut for today’s Cold Wave / Minimal scene. The album is rounded out with never before published press photos that my brother took at the time, and a lyric sheet adding the newly discovered songs.”

This reissue can now be ordered right here.

“Unveiling The Secret” – 30th anniversary (available here / EU vinyl orders can be placed here)

Released 30 years ago on the New Rose label, Psyche’s “Unveiling the Secret” was lauded by fans and praised by generations of musicians including Sven Vath, Joris Voorn, and Eskil Simonsson (Covenant). The leading tracks included “The Saint Became A Lush” (which appeared on Trevor Jackson’s famous “Metal Dance” series), “Prisoner to Desire” (remixed by the famous Joseph Watt of Razormaid fame), “Prisoner to Desire”, “Lord Unleashed”, and several more.

The Artoffact Records reissue is completely remastered and includes several bonus tracks which have never before been released. Darrin Huss again personally selected all the bonus material, including a rare Razormaid mix and the never-before-heard track “Lock The Door”.

Darrin: “A re-release of this album took place on CD in 1999, but it has never really been put together remastered and with all the single mixes together until now.

This latest release on CD and Vinyl also contains a rare black and white press photo taken by Alain Duplantier in Paris for New Rose. We decided to make all 3 albums black and white, and since this was the only album with a color photo at the time, I replaced it with this official press photo for consistency. It was a scandal at the time to have us on the cover, as indie bands usually have obscure graphics, and people were surprised that a “Horror Synth-Pop” act would suddenly advertise themselves rather than an image to represent the music. However, we did this consciously. As Skinny Puppy became popular with a similar sound and image, we moved on to a more Electro-Pop approach, and broke out of the Goth/EBM mold with “Unveiling The Secret” and “Prisoner To Desire”.

“The Saint Became A Lush” is of course a definitive Psyche sounding track that I feel represents what we do rather completely. I decided to add the Razormaid Mixes, and all the 12” single B-Sides to this release. Also new are two demos, one the previously unreleased “Lock The Door” another great instrumental by Stephen that was recorded in several versions, but for whatever reason we never finished it for an album. “Words Cannot Express” is an unreleased unfinished song that I practiced around the time of recording. The singing is fairly raw, but I think it makes a nice epilogue to the sleek Unveiling The Secret production.”

This reissue can now be ordered right here.

“Mystery Hotel” – Definitive Edition (available here / EU vinyl orders can be placed here)

In 1987/88 Stephen and Darrin Huss recorded what would become “Mystery Hotel”. The final album would be mixed, and produced at Synsound Studios in Belgium by Dan Lacksman (Telex) with additional mixing and engineering assistance by Stephan Krämer and Cookie. Following the success of “Insomnia Theatre” and “Unveiling the Secret”, Psyche turned to a classic wave sound on their third and most polished album. The album is in many ways the darkest Psyche album, just listen to tracks such as “Wake the Flood Unconscious”, “Nocturnal Passenger” and “The Outsider”.

The Artoffact Records reissue is completely remastered and includes several bonus tracks which have never before been released or never released before on CD.

Darrin: “The third in Psyche’s somehow unplanned “trilogy”. I call the albums the Holy Trinity of Dark Synth-Pop. All 3 have certain songs that stand the test of time, and awaken strong emotions in listeners just discovering our sound.

I have to say, this was the hardest to work on as “Dreamstreet” brought me to tears every time I tried to perfect this already beautiful sounding instrumental. We played this at my brother’s memorial, and it reminds me most of him, and our time together recording, and mixing at Dan Lacksman’s studio in Belgium. The album was original recorded at Garage studios in Paris where we had done “Unveiling The Secret” previously, but we somehow wanted to sound even more “glossy” at the time as most 80s bands were going from their rough beginnings to a more “radio friendly” sound.

We spent ages on “Uncivilized” and I rewrote the lyrics several times, but finally it became the debut single, and seemed to be getting us further towards the dream of bringing Psyche’s alternative Synth-Pop to a wider audience.

The reaction to this album at the time was fairly mixed. For me the 2 highlights are “The Outsider” and “Eternal”. Those have become the defining sound for what Psyche does when we go Pop, but keep our style. “Uncivilized” is equally popular, and at the time “Nocturnal Passenger” was the most requested song live. I think we advanced a little quicker than most of our fans were ready at the time, and whatever wasn’t Dark EBM was too soft for them.

“Eternal” managed to get radio play, and we made our most expensive video with a production team in Toronto for that one. Somehow the song is magical, and the appreciation grows with every new listener. For this re-release I have included again the Razormaid mixes, B-Sides, and the Live EP that originally came with the limited New Rose release. The demos of Stephen and I practicing some of the songs from this album will be added as a bonus download.

“Wake The Flood Unconscious” is also one of the most original things for a synth-pop band to do. Psychedelic rock on Synth. We were inspired by Soft Cell’s Hendrix Medley, and listening to The Doors, so we thought, why not make our own song in that style? With all three albums, it’s this breaking down barriers between various genres that makes Psyche stand out from the average. We had idols, and favorites, but we always wanted to do things our own way, and I am proud to have created a small piece of musical art in my lifetime, that still carries on to this day.

How appropriate then, that our Canadian partners, and label ArtofFact Records should have the definitive releases of these 3 groundbreaking albums.”

This reissue can now be ordered right here.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Leaether Strip – “I hate all this gear snobbery!” – Tech-Talk with DJ Wildhoney

Filip Wildhoney — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 21:06:00 +0000

The Danish EBM/Industrial project Leaether Strip was founded in 1988 by Claus Larsen. Leaether Strip will tour North-America in March/April 2016 and recently released the digital single “Can We All Forgive?”, to help cover his husband Kurt’s many medicine expenses because of his failing kidneys.

SL: How long ago did you buy your first keyboard ever? Which technology did it use (MIDI, 3.5″ floppy disks,…) and do you still own it?

CL: I bought my first synth back in early ’82. It was a Moog Prodigy. A monophonic old classic. No memory, no MIDI and no floppy disks. I taught myself how to play it and make sounds. Soon after that I started to write songs. I bought a Yamaha drummachine RX17 and used a double cassette recorder to make fake “multi tracks”. All except the drums was played live. MIDI and sequencer didn’t come until later, but I’m glad because it made me a better musician not to have all that.

SL: Which computer(s) and software do you currently use in your (home)studio?

CL: I use an old PC at the moment with Windows XP and Cubase Nuendo as the recording/MIDI software. I haven’t had it online for more than a few times so I’m still running on first Windows install after 9 years. It never really crashes on me, but it is getting a little too slow. I am slowly installing a new PC so it’s ready for when the old one kicks the can, so I also can run the new software in the future.

SL: Can you describe all synth gear and hardware you use nowadays? Which piece is the most valuable for you?

CL: I am about 50% hardware/50% software now. I like to mix the old synths with the software synths. My drums I sampled from my old drummachines (Roland TR-808, Prophet Drumtraks, Roland TR-707). I used to use DAT but now it’s all PC, and then I run it all through an old analogue equalizer and back to the PC to give it a bit of old school sound. My favorite synths in my studio are my Moog Source and Korg MS-20. My favorite software synths are the VAZ Modular and the Reaktor.

SL: When performing live, which keyboards and software do you use on stage?

CL: I use 2 M-Audio MIDI controller keyboards and have all sounds, samples and sequences mapped out on the laptop. We also use a Waldorf Blofeld and a Virus TI2 if we aren’t flying to the gig. We try to change it now and then. I do not use Cubase for live, because it’s not stable enough for that, so we’ve used FL Studio for that, and we haven’t had a crash in 7 years. It’s simple and fast to setup. I change sets all the time so it’s important that I can do it on the go.

SL: According to your opinion, which are the most legendary synths ever produced?

CL: My favorites for bass: anything Moog, really, I’m a huge fan. For pads: anything Roland. For noise and bass: Korg MS-20 for sure.

SL: And which are according to you the biggest synth artists/bands ever?

CL: Jean Michel Jarre, Alan Wilder, Vince Clark, Fad Gadget, Soft Cell and Depeche Mode.

SL: Share with us the worst case scenario that ever happened to you live on stage or in the studio!

CL: In the studio: One day back in the late ’90’s I came home, walked into my studio and water was just showering down from the ceiling, on my synths! It took the insurance-technicians 4 months to get all parts and fix them. I was devastated. As for the stage, we’ve been lucky and also prepared, so the worst has been the laptop running out of power because some idiot (me) forgot to plug it in, and a faulty mic, so no biggies. I have two of everything when we’re out so this old boy scout is prepared.

SL: The unavoidable question: do you prefer analog or digital synths more? And what’s your opinion about the virtual analog concept?

CL: If it makes the sound I want and need, I don’t give a shit what it is. I hate all this gear snobbery! It’s a tool, nothing more, and if you’re good you can make anything sound great, that’s where the talent comes in. Yes, I love knobs and beautiful design and I am a sucker for the “old” sound of the analogue synths. All these new synths that are coming out these days sound amazing, but for me as a songwriter and programmer, more knobs and patch cord bondage isn’t writing the songs for me.

SL: Isn’t the digital technology evolving too quick and becoming too complicated for artists nowadays?

CL: At the moment it seems that most companies are returning to the basics, and that’s fine, so the newcomers can learn about the basics of programming a sound from the bottom. I still got most of my gear from the old days and I still use most of them. I hope this trend will make people stop using presets all the time. But not everyone is a nerd like I am. I love to dive down into new gear and see what I can get out of it. But these days I can’t afford a lot of new stuff so that forces me to keep on playing with the old stuff, and that’s all good, because if I get a sound idea I can program it in a minute, because I know the synths like my own backyard. My goal is always to write the best songs possible and knowing my gear makes it easier.

SL: How will the future of creating electronic music look like?

CL: This “no buying music” trend is forcing most artists to get out and play concerts to be able to make it work financially, and that’s a really good thing. Because that’s what it’s all about. It just sucks that it’s getting harder to pay the bills and that people would rather pay to see an asshole DJ playing his pirate downloads, than a performing band.

New EP for cult act Naked Lunch, ‘Alternate States : chapter 1’ – out now featuring re-recording ‘Some Bizzare Album’ track ‘La Femme’ – Depeche Mode fans will love this one!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:08:02 +0000

Out now via Bandcamp is the download EP “Alternate States : chapter 1” by Naked Lunch. Naked Lunch should ring a bell with many amongst you as the band was featured on the now legendary “Some Bizzare Album” with other acts such as Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, etc.. Not all that surprising since Tony Mayo, the lead singer, had close connections with Stevo Pearce and aided with pulling the artists for this album together.

The cult track “La Femme” from that “Some Bizzare Album” was re-recorded for this new EP with extra vocals by Jet Noir. Jet Noir joined up with Naked Lunch in 2013 when the recording of their “Beyond Planets” album was underway. The tracks on “Alternate States : chapter 1” were then mixed by Dean Baker (Galahad) and mastered by Martin Bowes of Attrition. 4 extra tracks complete the EP which is out now and can be downloaded now.

Interesting detail about “La Femme” is that the song was originally called “Le Femme” but Phonogram to who the “Some Bizzare Album” album was licensed to changed it to grammatically correct French, missing the point of the androgyny of the electronic music scene (and that the song was about that).

Naked Lunch are one of the one of the first synth based groups and was formed in 1979 by Tony Mayo. Mick Clarke was an early addition shortly followed by Cliff Chapman and Paul N. Davies and then, in 1981, by Mark Irving. Although they called it a day in 1985, 2010 saw Tony Mayo link up again with early member Paul Davies to write new material. Mick Clark and Cliff Chapman joined in 2011, Mark Irving in early 2012. The band released the album “Beyond Planets” in 2014 after signing with Sub Culture Records for digital distribution. In 2014 Naked Lunch toured the UK with Combichrist and in 2015 with Covenant.

Alternate States : chapter 1 by Naked Lunch

For more on Depeche Mode, see Your TOP 10 wishes for a new Depeche Mode album on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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