Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia:
1989’s Tricky Disco from Tricky Disco. Not nearly as funny now, I guess you had to be there.
From 1985, ItaloPop with Modern Talking’s You Can Win If You Want.
Alphaville’s epic original version of Forever Young from 1984.
You can buy most of this music from:
Saint Etienne crowdsourced their latest video, getting fans to show the world their favourite records to accompany the ode to Pop I’ve Got Your Music.
What sounded initially a cheap, and a bit cheesy, actually really works amazingly well, it’s interesting to see everyone’s choices. Whoduv’ thunk it?
I’ve Got Your Music is taken from Words And Music By Saint Etienne, out not.
Buy Saint Etienne’s music from:
Calfskin is a hard ElectroPop project from Belgium. The solo work of Konstantin De Winter, we’ve actually been debating whether to feature Calfskin for the past week, it’s pretty EBM/FuturePop, which tends to make out toes curl a bit in 2012, but Calfskin managed to win us over in the simplest of ways. By having some damn good songs.
So, upfront, it does sound a little dated. FuturePop had it;s peak in the very early 2000’s, and Calfskin does sound a bit like like it’s stuck in a timebubble. But here’s the good news, if you’re going to sound dated, sound like the good dated stuff, and Calfskin does, having more in common with the intelligent talents of the scene, such as Neuroticfish and Seabound, than the tedious “I can use an arpeggiator” bands that killed FuturePop. Calfskin has just released a new EP, Standing Eight, containing five emotionally charged, driving ElectroPop tracks. The easy standout of the EP is One Step Over (also released as a free single), which is catchy as hell, the chorus will stick in your head all day. Accompanied with rich layers of evocative electronic and a pounding beat. And that really sums up Calfskin’s Standing Eight, you may feel like you’re dancing in an Industrial club in 2001, but the songs are so good, and so infections, you probably won’t care.
♫ Calfskin – One Step Over
♫ Calfskin – Soul Searching
Calfskin’s Standing Eight EP is out now, you can grab the free single of One Step Over here.
Buy Calfskin’s music from:
Mark Nicholas A.K.A. Cosmicity was one of the only acts to come out of the so-called ‘Modern SynthPop’ scene with any merit. Sure the scene had itself it;s fair share of good songwriters, but the productions mostly sounded very amateurish. Only Nicholas, along with a handful of others, seemed to have a grasp on production and mixing techniques and a feel for contemporary recordings. He;s been quiet for a few years now but has just released a brand new EP. So how does a Modern SynthPop artist stack up in today’s world, where ElectroPop is back to being a proper thing.
Very well as it turns out, the Parlour Sofas EP hasn’t left the Modern SynthPop scene completely behind, but is head and shoulders above anything that crowd ever released. ‘Sealed In’, the EP’s intro is a blissful, pulsating ElectroPop track with Nicholas’ gently vocals drifting across the song and despite subject matter, is a really beautiful tune. Any Love That Comes Along follows immediately and eases the refrain into a more of a pounding hard dance groove. Again, the melancholy in the track is tempered with pleasing synths and vocals. Remember recalls more traditional Modern SynthPop territory, all EBM beats and arpeggios, and This Is So Lonely sees the EP out with a moody mid-paced BladeRunner vibe. If you pick up the whole EP you also get the instrumental of This Is So Lonely as a bonus. I’m not sure how much of my enjoyment of this EP is nostalgia, or even if that matters, but it’s definitely worth a listen.
♫ Cosmicity – Sealed In
♫ Cosmicity – Any Love That Comes Along
Cosmicity’s Parlour Sofas EP is out now.
Buy Cosmicity’s music from:
Are hardCORPS tracks like busses? You wait decades for one then loads come along at once. It was only this week that an unreleased track from the ‘80’s pioneers surfaced (quickly followed by a couple more), and now that are on the reMix for our favourite ladies of Minimal Synth Violet Tremors. hardCorps’ Clive Peirce teams up with his Medora partner in crime Phen to take on the girls Future Love from their rad Time is The Traitor album of last year.
Future Love was actually one of our picks of the album and Peirce and Phen take the abrasive ElectroPop and smooth it over with an almost Dubby sheen. Reverb washed synthetic percussion and a rolling Dub bassline from the rock on which Jessica’s mantra crashes. the end result is very Cabaret Voltaire, that mixture of Experimental Dub influenced electronics and early SynthPop harsh deadpan delivery alongside otherwordly synths could have come straight out the early ‘80’s underground.
♫ Violet Tremors – Future Love (Clive Pierce (hardCORPS & Medora) & Phen (Medora) reMix)
‘Time Is The Traitor’ is out now.
Buy Violet Tremors’ music from:
Amazing! That’s what we thought when we heard there was a collaboration between awesome dark ElectroPop princess The Good Natured and SynthPop legend (and if there is one man in the whole world who you can really use the words SynthPop legend in conjunction with, it’s him!) Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure & The Assembly fame. Can it really be as good as he sum of it’s parts?
Ghost Train is certainly something special. It’s a modern update on that particular early 80’s SynthPop sound, juxtaposing the deadpan and the epic within the track. Sarah slips between the robotic and the anthemic, which just the smallest nod to contemporary Pop. Under which Vince works his classic SynthPop magic. Buzzing synths cut through the mix alongside pads that really capture the mood of the track and the lyrical content. We’re not sure where this collaboration is going, but we’d definitely like to see an EP at least.
♫ Vince Clarke & The Good Natured – Ghost Train (Vox Mix)
They have also collaborated on anew mixtape, you can here is here.
Buy The Good Natured’s music from:
Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia:
Kicking off in the very early ‘80’s, Mind Of A Toy from Visage in 1981.
From 1989, on TOTP, Coldcut and Lisa Stansfield’s People Hold On.
The second most recognisable arpeggio of all time? Japan’s Quite Life from 1981.
You can buy most of this music from:
Well here’s an interesting treat for a Tuesday morning. A previously unreleased track from legendary avant-garde SynthPop act hardCORPS. Bravo was a live staple for the band around the mid to late ‘80’s but never made it’s way to release.
From around 1986, Bravo, is a sublime, pulsating, slice of ‘80’s Futurism. A post-Industrial robotic march tempered by swelling, evocative, synth chords. The soundtrack to a dystopian metropolis, hardCOPRS have always blended a raw brutality with pure beauty. Regine’s vocals drift across the track like smoke curling through the city, guiding the listener through the musical dark alleyways. No-one really does futurism like this anymore, which is a pity. All-in-all this track has really made my day.
♫ hardCORPS – Bravo (Unreleased)
Buy hardCORPS’ music from:
The League Unlimited Orchestra’s Love And Dancing is, of course, a The Human League album and not for the first time have the worlds of Nu-Disco legend Aeroplane and The Human League come together. Exciting stuff. So who’s that cheeky chappy in the photo? Well, that (for the 1% of readers of this site who wouldn’t know, but really should) is the late, great, Martin Rushent. He, basically, was The League Unlimited Orchestra. He’s the man who produced the greatest album ever made, The Human League’s Dare from 1981. Pressured by their Record Label for more released Rushent came up with the idea of releasing an record of Dub and Mixes of tracks from Dare, thus inventing the reMix album. A selection of Instrumentals to the untrained ear Love And Dancing is actually full of pretty complex and divergent reMixes. And mostly the work of Rushent.
So, for a long time Vito’s personal edit of the Love And Dancing version of Don’t You Want Me? was a staple of his set, originally put together for a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix. Vito leaves the track largely intact, which is why it’s an edit not a reMix, subtly bring out it’s dancefloor qualities and stripping everything that’s not needed in a set. I think Martin would be proud that even now, in 2012, people are still crazy for his tunes.
♫ The League Unlimited Orchestra – Don’t You Want Me? (Aeropop Edit)
Buy The Human League’s music from:
London’s most bombastic SynthPop outfit Strangers latest single Safe/Pain has only gone and got itself a video!
The song is a rousing powerhouse of SynthPop melancholy and the video, directed by Claire Coulton, Richard A. Sharpe & Strangers themselves is beautifully dreamlike.
Safe/Pain is out now.
Buy Strangers’ music from:
electronic rumors 