electronica
10 posts
Standout track Psycho Erotic sees the duo at their most wanton, Snaith's bestial guitars like a wolf pawing at the floor, while Bach purrs "He gets me all fired up, and hot and hot!". Blimey, pass the smelling salts!
Something of an alternative supergroup, Shriekback came into being – at least as Barry Andrews tells it – after he was doggedly pursued by bassist Dave Allen. Allen, looking to form a new band after the demise of Gang of Four, was keen to hook up with the keyboard player who’d quit XTC, after losing a power struggle with Andy Partridge. Initially reluctant, Andrews […]
In no particular order some of my favourite music moments. No37 O Superman by Laurie Anderson. Eight minutes long and performed by a then little known American street artist, Laurie Anderson‘s O Superman is perhaps one of the unlikeliest UK chart hits of all time. Written in response to Operation Eagle Claw, a disastrous 1980 attempt by the American military to rescue hostages […]
Frontman Neil Arthur is disarmingly modest about their achievements, but Blancmange were one of the most successful bands to emerge from the experimental electronic music scene of the early ’80s. Blending pop melodies with dark lyrics and avant-garde programming and recording techniques, they went on to rack up seven Top 40 hits. Don’t Tell Me and Living On The Ceiling both reached the […]
Happy Robots boss and one time Peel’s Festive 50 fave Rodney Cromwell releases a new 5-track EP on November 11. The Fax Message Breakup EP follows Cromwell’s well-received debut album Age of Anxiety and features exclusive remixes of album cuts Happy Robot and Cassiopeia.
Taking their name from a rather forthright way of telling someone to shut up, transatlantic duo STFU have forged a fittingly uncompromising sound on debut album What We Want. Despite being literally an ocean apart during the recording process, producer Dean Garcia and vocalist Preston Maddox, of noise-rockers The Bloody Knives, have created a homogenous, dystopian behemoth of a record.
I’ve always felt that there were two Richard Ashcrofts – the cocksure ‘Mad Richard’ you often see in his interviews – and the sensitive soul who gave us The Drugs Don’t Don’t Work, Lucky Man and A Song For the Lovers. Both Richards are in evidence on These People, Ashcroft’s first album in six years, but the combination is not entirely successful. […]
I always felt there was something a bit emperor’s new clothes about Antony and the Johnsons. There was obvious merit in the music, but I could never quite understand why the likes of Lou Reed were so enamoured. Then came 4 Degrees and even this old philistine had to sit up and take notice.