Howard Jones’ ‘New Song’ from1984. Throw off your mental chains! Throw them off! Do It! I;m watching! Oh Oh Oh!
A Musik Laden performance of Thompson Twins’ ‘The Gap’, again from 1984
More from 1984, Nik Kershaw’s ‘When A Heart Beats’, just ‘cos.
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Photo courtesy of Katja Ruge
OK, so we don’t normally go in for the whole blog ‘exclusive’ bragging rights thing, we don’t see the point, very little on the internet stays exclusive for more than 30 seconds, and your ‘exclusive’ probably got leaked last week anyway. We always though it was about the music, not the blog. But we are amused by how much exclusivity there is crammed into this one post, so we’re going to mention it. Hypocrites much? What we have here is the première one of our favourite Indie tinged SynthPop acts, Echoes, reMixing our favourite Madonna Of The Midlands™, Ronika, topped of with a exclusive Ronika based display of retro sportswear from our favourite photographer, and snapper to the stars, Katja Ruge. Literally nothing about this post isn’t so fresh it’s still smoking.
Anyhoo, dazzling shininess of this post aside, what Echoes have turned in is a pretty stunning sunrise-beach-party take on Ronika’s ‘Only Only’. Part Balearic, part Progressive House, Echoes strip back the urban dancefloor urgency of the original (and it’s subsequent reMixes) and insured let Ron’s vocals swim about in a sea of chilled good vibes. Echoes have crafted a laid back and emotional slice of summery House with a classy piano line and let Ron’s vocals sit in just the right place in the mix, somewhere just in the distance, so the track washes over you.
♫ Ronika – Only Only (Echoes reMix)
Completely coincidentally, both Ronika and Echoes will be appearing on our electronic rumors volume 1 compilation, released 13th February, and both putting in an appearance at the launch party on the 10th February. Details here.
Ronika’s latest single ‘Only Only’/’In The City’ is out now and comes highly recommended.
Buy Ronika’s music from:
So, if you ignore an James Corden associated abominations, Tears For Fears’ ‘Shout’ is one of the best songs ever written, not many covers do it justice (and some (see aforementioned abomination comment) are so shit they barely qualify as music), thankfully London SynthPop trio Strangers’ take on the track is stop on.
I’ve heard the track with distorted industrial percussion before, but always with terrible industrial vocals, here Strangers get electronically experimental with the beats but keep the anthemic, melodic ,vocals (which aren’t easy to sing, so kudos there!) intact. It’s an awesome slice of dark ElectroPop which really conveys the power of the original song.
♫ Strangers – Shout (Tears For Fears Cover)
Strangers’ ‘EP 3’ is out now.
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Labyrinth Ear’s Italo basslined deep SynthPop track ‘Humble Bones’ is now a visual treat too.
Minimal, but hypnotic, the video directed by Brendan Canty of Feel Good Lost is simple but very effective.
‘Humble Bones’ is taken from Labyrinth Ear’s forthcoming EP “Apparitions”, released on 7th February.
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Ireland’s Empire State Human (incidentally, the first act we interviewed on electronic rumors, all those years ago!) has released a brand new single this month, ‘December Rose’.
A beautiful, deep electronic ballad-with-a-beat, ‘December Rose’ not only features Aidan Casserly’s Kraftwerk inspired machine synthesizer patterns but some huge cinematic chord work that life the track into the relms of epic. Add to that a lilting, almost ‘90’s beach House, saxophone and you have an evocative slice of laid back SynthPop.
♫ Empire State Human – December Rose
‘December Rose’ is out now and taken from
Buy Empire State Human’s music from the forthcoming album, ‘The Art’, both on new label House Of Analouge.
Here is it! The full video for Sébastien Tellier long, long awaited new single ‘Pépito Bleu’, taken from his also long, long awaited forthcoming album ‘My God Is Blue’.
The track is pure Tellier SynthPop quirk and drama. Majestic and ridiculous and amazing. As for the Sanghon Kim & Mathieu Tonetti directed vide, well, just watch…
‘My God Is Blue’ is out soon on Record Makers.
Buy Sébastien Tellier’s music from:
Kicking off with one of my all time favourite tracks Hashim’s ‘Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)’ from 1983. Often imitated, never bested. Such an influence.
Wish Key’s ‘Orient Express’ also from 1983. Italo, ElectroPop, Euro gold.
From 1981, Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’. The track that started it all. No matter how many adverts you’ve heard it in the original is still awesome.
You can buy most of this music from:
New Order’s ‘5 8 6 ’, form 1983, was a prime example of the bands early experiments with synths being at the forefront of their music. Having just discovered Disco many of the tracks on the ‘Power, Corruption & Lies’ album have a dance groove, but not all of them would stand up on todays dancefloors, including ‘5 8 6’…Mirror People thought he’d see to that.
Mirror People’s edit of ‘5 8 6’ gives the track a new burst of raw energy. Emphasising the kick and some of the synths, and adding a few stabs here and there, the changes are quite subtle, but make all the difference in the mix.
♫ New Order – 5 8 6 (Mirror People Edit)
‘5 8 6’ is taken from New Order’s 1983 album, ‘Power, Corruption & Lies’.
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Here’s the long awaited video for Austra’s ‘Spellwork’.
I’m sure there’s probably something coherent going on in this Yelena Yemchuk directed clip, I think It’ll take a couple more watches to get though.
Buy Austra’s music from:
OK, so, Depeche Mode reMixes, particularly reMixes of ‘Enjoy The Silence’ are usually a sore point for us. ‘Silence’, as well as being one of the greatest songs ever written, is also one of the most reMixed and covered, and 99.9999% of the are shit. There’s barely a handful of reMixes of the track that are any good and only two covers that I can recall. So it’s actually high praise indeed when I say RAC’s rework of the tune doesn’t make me want to be violently ill.
RAC’s version has got a nice Disco groove going on. I’m not overly convinced by the horns but they do grow on you. With the synth bass and live feel to the drums they are on to a winner though. Is it better than the original? No, of course it isn’t. But it’s better than most reMixes out there.
♫ Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence (RAC Mix)
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electronic rumors 