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The electronic rumors Awards: HALL OF FAME – electronic rumors’ Hall Of Fame inductee 2011!!!
This was a no-brainer really. Last year’s entry into our Hall Of Fame was a toss-up between Kraftwerk (who ended up being entered) and this band. The band that practically invented SynthPop and in their decades long career have never once wavered from the path of electronic Pop music.
If you are at all into synthesizer music with a Pop edge then everything you listen to owes a debt to The Human League. Sure, the building blocks were being put in place by numerous musical movements in Europe (including The League’s own electronic experimentalism as part of the late ‘70’s scene in Sheffield, from the moment founders Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh recruited Philip Oakey to sing over their avant-garde soundscapes) but it took the disassembling of The Human League Mk1, the inclusion of the schoolgirls Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, and a new band with the legendary Martin Rushent on production to allow all the pieces of the SynthPop puzzle to fall into place and one of the greatest albums of all time, ‘Dare!’ to be released. I consider ‘Dare!’ to be the first proper, and deliberate, SynthPop record made. Oh, I know there was music that came in the couple of years before, but it all had airs and graces of being something else. Whether Gary Numan’s happy fluke, John Foxx’s dark avant-garde, or Ultravox trying something new, they were, although creating awesome music, just finding their footing. The Human League were a proper SynthPop band. Unashamedly synth. Unashamedly Pop .
And Phil, with Susan and Joanne ever at his side, has never lost sight of what he wanted to make. Electronic Pop music. Moving with the times through the late ‘80’s Electro Soul of the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced ‘Crash’, the Mid-‘90’s Pop-Trance of ‘Octopus’, to the current Electro sound of ‘Credo’ (on Wall Of Sound), The Human League have, while their early ‘80’s contemporaries morphed into AOR acts, always produced fresh electronic music. Their latest offerings roping in the likes of Aeroplane and Plastic Plates for reMix duties, another indication of the band’s continued relevance.
The music and career of The Human League inspire everything music related I do, most importantly this website. As far as I’m concerned that are the godfathers, the royal family, the Mr. Miyagis and the Yodas of ElectroPop, and deserve their place, no question, in the Hall Of Fame.
♫ The Human League – Love Action (I Believe In Love)
♫ The Human League – Empire State Human
♫ The Human League – Human
Buy The Human League’s music from:
Goin’ Old School: The Human League – Don’t You Want Me? Live on X-Mas TOTP
Here’s your X-Mas Goin’ Old School. The Human League’s uber-hit, ‘Don’t You Want Me?’, performed on X-Mas 1981’s Top Of The Pops.
Buy The Human League’s music from:
Toomy Disco & HiEM & Phil Oakey!
HiEM (Bozzwell and Nicco Eastwood)’s ‘2am’ featuring the vocals of The Human League’s Phil Oakey has been knocking around for a couple of years now, but was been given a new lease of life when Toomy Disco & Fernando were asked to reMix the track.
Washing the ElectroPop original with broad strokes of Disco, Toomy Disco & Fernando lay down a severe bass and guitar lick Funk that just seem to roll under Sir Phil’s vocals. Some nice big synth chords finish off the musical job layering the track think, only to be spaced out again with some vocal echo. This is a late night groover, fact.
♫ HiEM (Feat. Phil Oakey) – 2am (Toomy Disco & Fernando reMix)
HiEM recently released their excellent ‘Escape From Division Street’ album.
Buy HiEM’s music from:
The Human League X Plastic Plates
We’ve actually already written about Plastic Plates reMix of The Human League ‘s forthcoming single, ‘Sky’, you can read what we wrote here. But in anticipation of the single’s release next week we can offer the track for you to download.
It’s one of my favourite reMixes of the track, taking The Human League to new laidback, funky, places. It’s not often you get to hear The League with such a Disco so, for me, this track is like a meeting of everything I love. The mix has a nice piano groove running throughout keeping the energy up while retro synth stabs and the most Disco of Disco beats handle the dancefloor. this track has already found it’s way onto a few mixtapes, expect more to come.
♫ The Human League – Sky (Plastic Plates reMix)
‘Sky’ is released 25th July, ‘Credo’ is out now.
Buy The Human League’s music from:
The Human League’s next single
The Human League next single, the fourth taken from their recent album ‘Credo’, will be ‘Sky’.
It’s a bit of an odd choice for a single release, I think there are tracks on the album that are better suited, but it’s pretty quintessential League. A classic ElectroPop bassline and Phil’s narrative vocals dominate the track. The single is backed up with reMixes from Plastic Plates, The Hacker, Fusty Delights and Martin Brodin. Plastic Plates bring some really nice synth Funk into play on his reMix, which is probably my favourite of the single, while Fusty Delights is a close second as he revels in a retro synth workout that boarders on ols school EBM at times with rapid fire arpeggios.
♫ The Human League – Sky (Radio Edit)
♫ The Human League – Sky (Plastic Plates reMix)
♫ The Human League – Sky (Fusty Delights reMix)
‘Sky’ is released 17th July, ‘Credo’ is out now.
Buy The Human League’s music from:
Goin’ Old School: The Human League – Love Action (I Believe In Love) in memory of Martin Rushent
Legendary producer Martin Rushent passed away at the weekend aged 63. Marin was responsible for not only shaping the sound of SynthPop and ElectroPop but, with the The League Unlimited Orchestra’s ‘Love And Dancing’ was a pioneer of the reMix world. He also produced the greatest album of all time, The Human League’s ‘Dare’, in 1981. Here is ‘Love Action (I Believe In Love)’. The world is slightly worse off today.
Buy The Human League’s music from:
The Human League’s ‘Credo’
This coming Monday it’s finally here! The Human League’s ninth studio album, and the first since 2001’s ‘Secrets’, is released. It’s been a long time coming for League fans, and it’s been worth the wait.
In 1981 The Human League released ‘Dare’, the single greatest SynthPop album ever recorded, that was three decades ago. Three Decades! And in their generation spanning career, Phil, Susan & Joanne have never strayed from the path, never pandered to fashion (were they making Brit Pop album in the mid 90’s? No!), they are an ElectroPop act. They evolve as electronic music evolves, they can experiment with electronic music and songwriting, they can collaborate with contemporary artists, but they remain ambassadors for ElectroPop. While Depeche Mode were trying to be a Blues Rock band and Gary Numan was saying a prayer before every bedtime that he would wake up being Trent Reznor. The Human League stand proud as The Human League, the worlds greatest SynthPop band.
So, to ‘Credo’. The ElectroPop landscape is vastly different from the last time The League released an album, the last five years have been an amazing time to be an ElectroPop fan. From the explosion of Indie-Electro, the return of intelligent Electronic Pop to our charts to the awesomeness that is Dreamwave and the Minimal Synth scene growing and growing, there is so many talented ElectroPop artists pushing the boundaries of the genre these days how does ‘Credo’ compare?
Very well actually. ‘Credo, is probably the most ‘The Human League’ sounding album The Human League have made since the mid-80’s. Phil Oakey is as his droll finest. As with the best League tracks there are strong narratives that run throughout many of the tracks and, from a purely songwriting style point of view, this album is really close to ‘Dare’. But it’s not just in Oakey’s vocals that ‘Credo’ harkens back to THL of old, the synth sounds used over the whole eleven tracks conjure imaginations of early 80’s TOTP. The middle section of the album, tracks like ‘Into The Night’, ‘Egomaniac’, ‘Single Minded’ and ‘Electric Shock particularly have classic analog lead lines very reminiscant of the singles of The League’s pop explosion
♫ The Human League – Never Let Me Go
So, if the songwriting sounds like classic League and the sounds on the album are 1981 approved then does ‘Credo’ sound dated? Well, not really, and that’s down to the production, and the drums. Imagine The Human League of old with contemporary dance drums and modern, slick, production techniques and that’s pretty much ‘Credo’. To be honest I couldn’t ask for anything else from THL
♫ The Human League – Night People (Single Edit)
Highlights of the album, for me, include the new single ‘Never Let Me Go’, the closest The Human League are going to get to DiscoPop, which I think should have been the lead single over ‘Night People’. If ‘Egomaniac’ isn’t the next single I will eat my Pork Pie hat, it’s classic League, call and response vocals between Phil and the girls, a dry wit and a silky smooth sing-along chorus. ‘Electric Shock’ is another definite winner, pure Synthetic Pop that kicks into Acid craziness in the chorus.
If loved The Human League, but hated it when they tried to be R&B, or Trance, ‘Credo’ is 100% for you!
‘Credo’ is released 21st March on Wall Of Sound.
The Human League’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ Video
Here’s the video for The Human League forthcoming new single ‘Never Let Me Go’.
It’s mirror creepy, I warn you, if you find symmetry, and octopuses, creepy that is, which I do.
Defiantly one of the standout’s of the album (review incoming), personally I would have led with this single before ‘Night People’ and as with ‘Night People’ the last third is amazing.
‘Never Let Me Go’ is out now and the new album,‘Credo’’s release has been brought forward to next week.
The Human League & Aeroplane!!!
Here it is, the reMix we’ve been waiting for. Nu-Disco pioneers Aeroplane’s reMix of the forthcoming The Human League single, ‘Never Let Me Go’.
The original version is a Robo-Pop stomper that sees The Human League sounding more contemporary than their pervious single ‘Night People’, but this reMix takes it to another level. All Vito Aeroplane’s trademark filtered Disco grooves are in there alongside Phil, Joanne and Susan. Massive chords in the chorus work expertly alongside 80’s riffs in the verses. All-in-all, worth the wait. We’ll probably be hammering this most of the summer!
♫ The Human League – Never Let Me Go (Aeroplane reMix)
The ‘Never Let Me Go’ single is released 21st March alongside the new album ‘Credo’ also on 21st March.
